A Moment in Time, I'll Turn Back
by caylender
Summary: Time travel was risky business. If you changed one thing, a whole bunch of other things would change with it without you realizing until it was too late. Maybe Roman should have thought about the consequences before he started altering the time stream. But he was doing it for the right reasons... to reunite his family, his brothers. Kayfabe
1. Prologue: Looks Familiar

**Disclaimer:** I don't own WWE, obviously.

 **AN:** I've been working on this puppy since the middle of March...It's kind of like my baby at this point. I'm excited to see what people think.

Title is inspired by the Alan Moore quote before the chapter title. It fits in later, I promise. :)

 **Another AN:** Thanks to Captain for being my beta for this fic. (I mean, I think she's only doing it so she can read it before I post it...Hmm...but either way, she's a fantastic editor and a great person to bounce ideas off of. I'm sorry so for killing your feels, Captain.)

 _Takes place during the November 2 RAW 2015 during the traditional 5 on 5 Survivor Series match of Team Rollins versus Team Reigns._

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Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time

—Alan Moore

Prologue: Looks Familiar

November 2, 2015 9:55 P.M.

"Looks familiar, don't it?"

Roman Reigns rolled into the middle of the ring after being manhandled by Seth Rollins.

"Looks familiar, don't it?"

That nasally voice shouted again, and Roman covered his head with his arms.

"Look familiar don't it?" Seth screamed at the crowd again to a rising cacophony of jeers and boos. The Denver fans hurled insults and words of abuse at the former Architect of the Shield.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Seth raising the steel chair in the air before he began to climb up the steel steps.

Yes, yes, the situation did look very familiar. The residual stings and pangs in Roman's back felt familiar. The steel chair looked familiar. Even the bruised outline on Roman's torso looked and felt familiar.

However, the most familiar yet most foreign part of the situation was Seth.

Yes, Roman could recall every detail of June 2, 2014. Each second played like a high definition video, allowing Roman to see, hear, and feel every sensation from that night. It served as a painful reminder of what had happened in these last two years since his baby brother's betrayal.

The Seth Rollins standing before him now was not the Seth Rollins Roman knew.

A face wiped clean of any emotion, any empathy was not the face of his little brother, and the face he could see now - smiling at the pain he was inflicting on another person- was a far cry from the Seth Rollins of the Shield. The smile he saw on the champion's face was a genuinely false one, which was so different from the goofy grin the kid would wear when he or Dean would compliment him. It was distorted to a caricature of Seth's real smile: too big, too forced. The smile turned into a snarl before his face blanked completely, and he adopted the same face he wore on June 2, void of any form of empathy or remorse.

Seth charged into the ring, holding the chair like a lifeline as he readied himself to beat Roman again until the Samoan could not move. Before the World Heavyweight Champion could actually carry out his plan, Roman sprang to his feet, pulling his arm back and releasing it into a Superman Punch hitting Rollins.

For once the crowd was actually cheering on Roman even though ever since his Royal Rumble win, the WWE universe was more inclined to boo the Samoan. However, Seth's treacherous use of the steel chairs must have prompted the fans to cheer on Roman. Although, Roman knew this support would only last as long as the night.

Roman's momentum brought him to the ground. He watched Seth grab the belt and take off to the stage. Roman met Seth's gaze and the other man held up the title. Roman couldn't tell if he was trying to gloat and rub it in Roman's face or if he was reassuring himself of the fact he was indeed still champion.

After staring at his title, clutched tightly in his grasp did Seth look up and meet Roman's gaze. For a split second, Seth's eyes softened, and he looked like Roman remembered. However, the moment passed, and the look of desperation returned to those brown eyes. Quickly, Seth spun around on his heels and ran backstage.

A tapped up hand reached down to Roman, he blindly grasped it as Dean pulled him to his feet. Roman threw an arm around Dean's shoulder. He didn't need Dean's help to stand; rather, he just wanted to be close to his brother in this moment.

Dean had a tendency to be very perceptive and sense what Roman was thinking. The Lunatic Fringe pulled his brother into a hug.

"It's okay, Rome. You'll get the championship. One way or another," Dean said as he looked at the recently vacated spot where the champion had taken off from.

Roman sighed.

"I think you're supposed to say 'Believe that' right now or a simple 'I can and I will' would do the job."

Roman let out a surprised chuckle and ruffled up Dean's already messy curls. "Thanks for the tip, little brother."

Dean swatted away Roman's hand with a smirk. "Hey, what can I say? Along with my good looks and charm, I'm here to give solid advice."

Roman grinned. "And you do just that, Dean. You always have my back."

Dean smirked knowing full well Roman was right. "Course, I do. I'm always here for you, brother. Believe that!"

Roman couldn't help but groan at the Lunatic Fringe's use of his tagline. "Really Dean?"

Dean slide under the bottom rope and began the walk backstage with Roman following him. He threw a cheeky grin at his brother. "Is it my fault that's so catchy?"

The two Superstars made their way to the locker room they were sharing to shower and change.

"Dang it," Dean mumbled under his breath.

Roman looked up from where he was tying his shoe to see Dean examining his abdomen.

"Jeez Dean, that looks bad."

"Yeah," he agreed while prodding his abs. The skin was already blooming in ostentatious purples and reds. He poked a particularly bad looking welt and hissed in pain through his teeth. "But I've had worse. As long as I don't have to sew anything back on, we're good."

"Do you want to head back to the hotel? Get some rest?" Roman asked, concerned by how beaten up his best friend was.

"Nah, let's go to that bar like we planned. I could use some beer or maybe something stronger." Dean shrugged at Roman, like he couldn't care less about how sore he was or about the events in the ring earlier that night.

"You sure, man? It looks like you should just ice that and rest up."

"Nah, I'm good," Dean said as he pulled a T shirt over his head, hiding his torso from view and hiding the issue altogether.

It wasn't just that the Lunatic Fringe didn't want to talk about and expose his weakness, even if it were with the one person he trusted above everyone else. Well, maybe that was a large part of it.

Dean trusted Roman. Fact.

Dean considered Roman to be his brother, his only family. Fact.

However, Dean had been burned in the past by someone he considered to be his brother. Fact.

While Dean knew he could trust Roman, it was difficult to let himself be completely vulnerable. He also found it too painful to dwell on the Seth situation because Dean knew and understood how broken the betrayal had left him. If it hadn't been for Roman, Dean would've been reduced to a fragmented Jon Moxley mindset, more psycho than man.

As Dean straightened the bottom of his shirt and carefully pulled his black leather jacket on, he could tell Roman wanted to talk to him about the night's events. He knew what Roman was wondering about their little brother, Seth. Oh Seth…

Roman hesitated before saying, "About tonight and what happened with Seth…"

"Let's not talk about that, Uce." Dean grimaced and turned away from Roman to decidedly riffle through his duffel bag.

Dean would say it seemed like yesterday when he and Seth would just glance at each other out of the corners of their eyes before they would suicide dive between the ropes.

Perfect timing together as always.

Yes, Dean would be tempted to say it seemed like yesterday. He would be tempted to say his baby brother had survived through the betrayal and still was somewhere in the corporate sellout they were left with. He could say those things, but they would be lies. He knew it wasn't yesterday. His ribs felt bruised, his torso was sore, and his body ached, but most of all, he felt tired.

It was tempting to think, to hope his little brother was still in there somewhere and he would return to him and Roman, like the Prodigal Son returned home after his father feared him dead.

It was very tempting.

But Dean Ambrose didn't put much value on pipe dreams anymore. Being curbstomped into submission did a very effective job of quelling any hopes he had for his wayward, little brother. Oh yes, the Seth they knew and loved like a brother was dead long ago from the moment the chair swung.

Dean knew Roman wanted him to say their brother was still there somewhere. Roman wanted to hear Dean say they would get their Seth back eventually. Dean knew what Roman wanted to hear: reassurances, hopeful words, pipe dreams. In the past, Dean had no problem telling Roman what he wanted to hear to keep his hope alive. However, tonight Dean felt bruised, he felt sore, and he ached. But most of all, he felt tired.

You couldn't change the past no matter how hard you tried. Thinking anything different was just a waste of time. What's dead was dead, and unless someone had a monkey paw they were willing to lend them, Seth would remain an empty, soulless shell with Sell Out stamped across his heart.

Dean clapped Roman on the shoulder. "Come on, Rome. Let's go."

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So this is the beginning. It picks up drastically next chapter. This is really just to set the scene. Tell me what you think. :D


	2. Chapter 1: Turn Back the Dial

So you can really thank Captain for the update tonight. I was perfectly content with being lazy and not posting the next chapter until next week even though it was ready. She's much nicer than I am. So thanks to her for editing for me and getting my butt into gear.

 **Disclaimer:** WWE owns all recognizable characters. I also don't own _Back to the Future_. Marty is mine though. Woo hoo!

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Chapter One: Turn Back the Dial

November 2, 2015 11:45 P.M.

The too loud beat of a rock song droned on in the background while Dean and Roman flopped onto the tall chairs, which surrounded the small round table in the back of the bar. Dean rubbed his abdomen once again still sore for from the events of the evening. Roman winced in sympathy; one of the biggest benefits to his ring gear was the vest afforded some protection to his torso. On the other hand, Dean's flimsy wife beater tank top offered no protection at all; therefore, Seth's chairshot bruised his entire torso (not to mention his ego).

An older woman approached their table; she wore her gray hair loose and it cascaded down her back in a jungle of waves. "Hello boys, my name is Marty, and I'll be minding you tonight. Can I get anything for y'all?" Her voice contained the barest traces of a Southern twang.

Dean shrugged and looked at Roman. "I don't know about my brother here, but I could really go for a beer."

Roman nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me."

Marty smiled and jotted something down on her notepad, . "Hankering for anything in particular? We're having a special on Fat Tire on tap?"

"That works for us, darlin'."

"Alright, y'all, I'll be right back."

Roman ran a hand through his hair before he pulled it back while he watched Dean carefully. For some reason, he was having a difficult time reading the Lunatic Fringe tonight. He was fidgeting more than normal, practically wiggling around on his chair, and tapping a steadily inconsistent beat on his collarbone.

He couldn't really blame Dean for his current mood; Roman felt unhinged too by the earlier events at RAW.

The sound of Marty setting down the glasses jolted the two men from their stupors.

Roman mumbled a muffled "thanks" to the waitress and took a swig of the beer as Dean mirrored him.

"You okay, bro?" Roman finally asked, feeling unsure of the Lunatic's current state.

Dean looked up at Roman surprised. "I'm as good as can be expected, I suppose."

Roman nodded a bit worried about what that meant but downplayed his assumptions. "Good"

"How about you, Big Dog?"

One shoulder shrugged, languidly. "Been better"

Dean scoffed. "No kidding, Uce. How's the back feeling?"

Roman considered it as he still could feel the ache in his back muscles before he said, "Not too horrible...I got him before he really had the chance to do any real damage."

"Yeah, that was one hell of a Superman Punch. No wonder the little brat scampered out of the ring back to Mommy and Daddy."

Roman managed a weak smile. "Yeah, right"

Dean sighed as he messed with his unruly hair.

Roman had the feeling Dean was purposely avoiding talking about what was on his mind. It had been over a year, but the subject was still a sore one - a festering open wound that had yet to scab over and heal.

Dean sighed again as he stood up from his chair. Roman looked up from where his gaze had been diligently studying the condensation on the smooth glass of his beer.

"Where you going?"

Dean smirked as his eyes beelined for the bar. "As much fun as this is, Uce, I'm going to try my luck at the bar."

Roman glanced at the bar and saw several very attractive women sitting in a group. He tried to not show his disappointment of losing the company of his brother. Dean had every right to try to enjoy himself. If he didn't want to stew in his own pool of angst over the Seth situation, he had every right. "Ah, I see."

Roman tried to immerse himself in the drops of water, carefully slinking their ways down his pint glass when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"You know I love you, Roman. Don't...don't dwell on this; it's not healthy. I know, pot meet kettle… I should listen to my own advice, but I don't wanna see you consumed by this whole thing. At some point, you're gonna have to accept it. The Seth Rollins we knew and loved is long dead and gone. He ain't coming back."

Roman leaned his head against Dean's shoulder. For some reason, the hug wasn't making him feel any better against the harsh reality that was the one they lived in.

"At least consider it, Rome?"

Roman nodded. "I'll consider it."

"Good," Dean said, giving Roman's shoulder a pat before heading to the bar and gaining the attention of the flock of women. "Ladies, the Titty Master has arrived!"

Roman tried to chuckle at Dean's antics, but he couldn't help but think about his other little brother. A part of Roman could remember when Seth had been fearless. What seemed like a lifetime ago during Payback 2014, he could remember his youngest brother appearing out of nowhere; his arms had stretched out to his sides extended above his head as he prepared to jump. Without taking a moment to consider how terrifying it was to hurl his body off the Titantron, his brother had done just that. He had used his body as a weapon, disregarding how dangerous it was.

He did it all in order to protect Roman; in order to protect his brothers.

Now Roman pictured Seth as how he looked when he ran away earlier that night with the title clutched tightly in his hands as though it held more importance than anything in this world. Roman wondered how it was possible for this man to be the same one who had forgotten gravity existed and human beings were never meant to fly. He wondered if this Seth Rollins would ever consider risking himself to save him or Dean. He wondered if the Seth Rollins from his memories still existed somewhere under the layers of cowardice and manipulation. He wondered if Dean was right in holding his opinion: the Seth Rollins they knew and loved from the Shield, the loyal and fearless high flyer, was dead, and in his place, a soulless shell of a man remained.

Roman didn't know what to believe anymore.

He tried to smile at the waitress as she brought him another beer, but it turned more into a grimace.

"Oh honey, are you alright? Is something the matter?" Marty asked a bit worried as frown came across her face. For someone who must be older, judging by her iron gray hair and gently wrinkled face, she was beautiful. Her big brown eyes shined with compassion and care; they reminded him of - nope, he wasn't going there.

"I'm fine. Everything's great," he said, even realizing how fake he sounded. He tried for a second attempt at a winning smile and had a little more success than his previous grimace.

Marty sighed as she rubbed Roman's arm. "I'm not sure how true that is, sweetie."

Roman looked at her questioningly. She smiled, shaking her head and walked back to the bar. The overhead lights shining on her hair, making it look almost pure white like an angel. Roman took a deep drink of his beer and couldn't help but think Marty was strange. People weren't normally this kind, and Roman didn't get the impression she knew who he was and was just sucking up to him because she was a fan… Weird.

The Powerhouse scanned the bar and watched Dean flirt with one of the groups of women. His brother was really hamming it up, leaning against the counter and using his smoothest lines. Roman shook his head as he overheard Dean use the 'I'm all about justice, but right now, I'm all about just us' on a young woman. Oh Dean…

"Here you go, honey. On the house," Marty said, setting two plates down on the table; she raised a hand to carefully brush a lock of dark brown hair behind her ear.

Roman raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What's this?"

Marty smiled widely and said, "My ma's famous apple pie."

"Pie?"

"Whenever I've been blue, pie has never let me down. I made one this morning to bring in for the staff, but you looked like you needed a piece much more than them."

Roman smiled and took a bite, attempting to hold back a groan from the rich flavors.

Marty sat down in Dean's vacated seat with a sigh. She gingerly rubbed her lower back. "Oh, these old bones…"

Roman scooped up another large bite perplexed by the older woman and asked, "You said it's a family recipe?"

"It's a lovely classic, Georgia recipe, and you can really taste the difference. My mom would always use three or four different kinds of apples: Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, and Granny Smith. This gives the pie more depth. She'd also put peach jam in with the apples; it makes such a difference. Can you taste the hints of Georgia peaches?"

Roman nodded as he continued to devour the pie. "It's delicious."

"Thanks" Marty grinned, and her big brown eyes twinkled. "Reckon you wanna talk about what's eating you?"

"Nothing's eating me."

"Right, you're just hunkey dorey, aren't ya?"

"I'm...hunkey dorey?" Roman gave Marty a look of disbelief.

She just grinned at him. "You not familiar with hunkey dorey?"

Roman gave her an unimpressed look. "I grew up in Florida; I know what it means. I just haven't heard anyone use it in a while."

"I get that. I get down-right excited when I meet someone from home here, but that doesn't happen often. These Colorado folks talk so fast with no flavor what-so-ever." Marty smiled as she took a bite of her slice of pie.

Roman chuckled. "I bet they do. Why'd you move up here?"

Marty shrugged; a young, mischievous glint graced her eyes. "I'm a rambler, you could say. I don't stay long in one place. I get bored easily. There's just too much fun to be had when you go a larking."

"You could say the same about me. Well, the moving around part at least...I travel for work," Roman responded. He then added as an afterthought, "The caramel on top is a great touch."

"Thanks, that's my personal twist on the recipe," she absentmindedly added while twisting some of her dark brown hair around her finger.

Roman sighed. "I don't want to be rude because you seem like a nice girl, but you don't really want to listen to my problems. It's complicated, and you're on the clock..."

Marty waved a hand at Roman. "Oh, boy, you are just the sweetest. It's deader than a doornail in here tonight. It's a Monday night. And call me girl? I'm old enough to be your mother, boy."

Roman frowned and did a double take at the waitress. One moment, her face was the perfectly smooth face of a twenty-year-old, and her hair was a rich dark brown; however, then her face was the residence of dozens of wrinkles, and her hair was a solid gray. He shook his head; he must be seeing things. Did he have too much to drink already? Or did he take a bigger bump earlier than what he thought? "Sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to be disrespectful."

Marty laughed. "It's nothing to be sore about, sweetie. I don't hold grudges anymore; I'm much too old for that. Now just talk to me. You'll feel better."

Roman sighed. He opened his mouth to say he wasn't going to tell her his life story. He wasn't going to tell this strange woman, who seemed simultaneously so young and so old and way too concerned with his life about his troubles. He didn't want to spill his problems to a stranger, even if she bribed him with pie. However, instead of a polite dismissal, he began talking about the Shield, about the brotherhood they shared, and about the brother they lost.

All during Roman's recollection of the betrayal, Marty just sat, patiently listening with her wrinkled chin resting on her hands.. She would make sympathetic noises at all the proper moments and sigh at others.

"And I don't know if the Seth that was our brother is even still in there. Sometimes I think he is, but tonight...I just didn't see him," Roman said, finishing his tale.

"And you're afraid you'll never see him again," Marty stated.

Roman nodded slowly and sadly.

"I bet you wish you could go back in time and stop him," Marty commented, carefully looking at Roman, who was staring down at his empty plate. "You know, take the chair right from his hands…"

"Yeah...or even just talk to him. I think if I had a chance to really connect with him before we went out there, I could've talked him from the ledge. That night...he didn't seem like he wanted to do it; he really had to force himself to not feel anything."

Marty leaned forward in her seat. "Roman, what if I told you, you could talk him off that ledge."

Roman paused; had he told her his name? He didn't think so… He brushed off his suspicion and shrugged. "I told you, it's too late now. That Seth is long gone, dead."

Marty shook her head. "Maybe so, but what if you could talk to him before you lost him."

"Before…?"

"I told you I ramble around a lot," Marty said with a large smirk, raising one dark eyebrow up.. She reached into her pocket. "Now in all seriousness, I'm going to give you something that can be a real help to your situation. It's been in my care for just about a century."

"A century?" Roman repeated in disbelief. Was this lady nuts? Nobody could live for more than a century.

"Shush now," Marty scolded as she pulled out a gold pocket watch and handed it over the table to Roman. "Take it."

Roman stared at Marty who held out the pocket watch to Roman. Marty was crazy, completely bat-shit. She was so confused that she couldn't remember how old she was. For some reason, Roman couldn't help but worry Marty was handing out precious, family heirlooms to random men in bars. Roman couldn't accept something from this old lady; it would essentially be the same as stealing.

"I don't think this is a good idea...I'm just going to find my brother and-"

Marty's voice grew stern, and her eyes flashed a dark, golden color. "I told you to take it, Roman!"

Roman's eyes were wide as he reached out and snatched the watch from her outstretched hand.

"Very good, boy," Marty said in a softer voice, "The knob on the bottom right is for years, the one in the middle is for months, and the one on the top is for days. If you need to get even more particular, use the one on the left side for minutes. After you're done dialing the time, close the watch again, and you'll travel. Your actions will impact the future, but you will still recall what happened in both time lines. Those around you, however will always assume this is the original timeline they were always supposed to be in. You got that?"

"You're insane. There's no way I can go back in time! This isn't Back to the Future!"

Marty laughed. "Of course, this isn't back to the future! That's a family heirloom, dating back to the 1800s! Not some car that will become redundant in a couple of years. Golly, you sure are foolish as those Internet wrestling fans say."

Roman frowned and opened his mouth to retort.

"Shush boy!" Marty scolded again. "I'm trying to remember if I've told you everything you need to know! Oh, I know! Whenever you go back farther in time, you bring another one of yourselves with you. If it's just a minute or so back, there won't be a difference; I think it's because you're still in the vicinity. But if you're talking about days or longer, you'll have a double of you. So you best be careful cause some folks might get suspicious if there are too many of yous running around. And having more than two of yous in the same time'll make its own mess of problems."

Roman just stared at Marty, trying to comprehend what was happening. "Too many of me…?"

Marty tapped her fingers on her chin trying to remember what else to tell him as she said, "Let's see. Oh! Make sure you take care to not interfere too much because anything you change will affect the future. There's a name for that kind of thing… Some kind of phenomenon? Eh, don't worry about it; I'm sure it's nothing too important."

Marty fixed her gaze on Roman. "This probably sounds incredible to you now, but you need to try it and see for me; I know many who really benefited from it… and some who didn't..."

Roman nodded a bit confused by all this. "I-uh-"

Marty interrupted him, saying, "well, I should get back back to the bar to start closing up. You might wanna grab your Dean and get him back to the hotel for some sleep. It looks like he's had one too many, and he's hitting on one of my girls right now, so I think it's best you two head back."

Before Roman could say anything, Marty scooped up his empty plate along with hers, rising from her chair and began walking back to the bar. Her hips sashayed as she walked away, and she casually flung her dark brown waves over her shoulders where they cascaded down her back. When she reached the counter, she narrowed her big brown eyes at Roman. Then she walked behind the bar's counter and began to talk with the other bartender, a young redheaded woman.

Roman's cheeks heated up, and he blushed at being caught looking at her swaying hips. Shaking his head, he grabbed his jacket and went to corral his brother from the group of woman.

"Hey, Dean, I'm heading back. Ready, man?"

Dean glanced up at Roman, blearily. "Rome?"

Roman glanced at the women around Dean, who all giggled, and then he noticed the dozens of empty shot glasses adorning the counter. Roman sighed and pulled Dean to his feet. "Come on, bro, time to go. We got to leave in the morning."

"But, Uce," Dean whined, dragging out the last syllable. "I'm staying right here with all these lovely ladies."

Marty walked over, smiling softly."Oh boy, you should head back and sleep this off." She brushed his hair off his face and felt his forehead for a temperature.

Roman stared at her, seeing her wrinkled face, gray hair, and slightly stooped figure. What the hell was he on? Had Seth really hit him that hard with the chair or was he hallucinating what this woman looked like?

She glanced up at Roman. "Honey, take this boy home and mind him, won't you? He doesn't look too good." She leaned down and kissed the top of Dean's head. "Have a good night, y'all."

Roman made eye contact with Dean. The Lunatic Fringe made an incredulous face, which barely masked his confusion of why this old lady was suddenly treating him like he was her long-lost grandson and not some borderline-crazy man. Dean mouthed something, which looked like What the hell?

Roman did a half shrug and pulled on Dean's leather jacket-clad arm, helping his brother haul himself to his feet. They exited the bar. It was a quiet night with hardly any traffic down their street. As they made it a couple of steps out the door and to the bus stop with a bench near the road, the other bartender ran out and stopped Roman.

"Roman? Marty had me call a cab. She said she covered it, so you just need to wait here. Don't worry about the fare."

"We're only a couple blocks away. I could've gotten him back. She didn't-"

"She said you'd say something like that. Don't worry about it. She said to tell you, it's her pleasure to help such young, handsome boys, and you should just suck it up and let her."

Roman rolled his eyes before he carefully set Dean down on the bench and turned to face the woman. "Sounds about right, coming from her."

"What's that supposed it mean?" The redhead asked.

"She's very persistent."

The bartender laughed. "Oh, you're talking about how she kept talking to you earlier, aren't you? She's just a very caring person."

Roman paused. This might be his chance to figure out what was the deal with Marty. "So Babygirl, how long has she been working here?"

The redhead waved her hand. "Oh, she's been here forever." Then the woman paused. "Oh but that's not right...She hasn't been working here longer than two weeks, tops…"

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Which is it then?"

The redhead frowned. "I feel like she's been here before I started working here, but I don't think that's right… I mean, I remember Barb hiring her...But that doesn't make any sense either…" She shook her head. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Roman stared at the girl raising an eyebrow in concern. "Okkkkaaay, do you know how old Marty is?"

The girl shrugged, unsure of what Roman was asking her. "I'm not sure, but she can't be older than me, and I just turned twenty-two, or maybe she's in her sixties..."

Roman frowned, thinking about the odd moments when Marty seemed to jump between ages. "Don't worry about it, Babygirl. It's not important."

She smiled. "My name is Abby, and I wanted to give this to Dean. But he drank way too much, so can I have you give it to him tomorrow?" She handed Roman a business card for the bar with her name and number on the flip side.

Roman smiled, accepting the card. "Of course, I can."

"We were having such a good time together. I mean until he started getting a little bit too intoxicated, but that's the thing, I guess. He only had like two beers, so I thought it was weird it hit him so suddenly. But I guess everyone's different. We really were hitting it off though before that. He even called me 'darling,' which was the sweetest."

Roman chuckled. "Sounds like you did hit it off. I'll-"

Roman paused mid-sentence when a car came racing along the street and a pair of headlights illuminated both Roman and Abby. Then they heard a foreboding screeching of breaks and a sickening thud.

Roman's stomach twisted in dread and instantly turned to the bench where he had set Dean, only to find no one there. "Shit! Dean!"

Abby screamed and pointed to the road, spotting something way before Roman did. As soon as Roman turned and saw what she was seeing, he sprinted towards the road.

In the middle of the lane was a crumpled shape in a black leather coat, laying in a pool of something dark in front of a yellow cab. The driver quickly backed up the cab and peeled around Dean's fallen body, speeding off.

"Call 911!" Roman screamed back at Abby as he sprinted over to Dean. Abby hesitated for only a second before she ran back towards the bar screaming.

With Abby hopefully calling an ambulance, Roman knelt by his brother and quickly placed his fingers on Dean's neck. Where was it? Where was it? He frantically felt for a pulse but found nothing. "Dean! Come on, man, don't do this to me!"

Roman carefully began the chest compressions for CPR, but he stopped when he saw Dean's face. A streak of blood snaked its way down his chin, and Dean's blank eyes stared up at the sky, unblinkingly.

There was no spark, no twinkle. They were empty; they were dead.

"Dean, shit! Dean!" Everything Roman knew seeped from his mind, and suddenly, his entire world was his brother. Roman cradled Dean's head in one of his hands, and he raised his brother up in the air and closer to him; Roman carefully hugged his brother close to his chest. "Dean, brother...I love you. You aren't allowed to leave me. You're supposed to always be the one here with me."

Suddenly, a warm hand touched his shoulder. "Six turns...Seven turns max, I would estimate. That's all it would take, sweetie."

Roman glanced up at Marty, frantically. "You knew this would happen! This is your fault!"

Marty shrugged. "Seven turns, Roman. Trust me." She crossed her arms and nodded her head.

Roman reached into his pocket and pulled out the watch. He opened it and swiped his thumb across the watch face, streaking it with red. His fingers spun the dial on the left seven times. He stared at the watch, and he heard an ambulance siren in the distance before he flicked the watch closed. He closed his eyes, focusing on the pounding of his frantically beating heart, the temporarily still-warm Dean in his arms, the cold watch in his hand, and the sound of the sirens, filling the cool air.

"We were having such a good time together. I mean until he started getting a little bit too intoxicated, but that's the thing, I guess. He only had like two beers, so I thought it was weird it hit him so suddenly. But I guess everyone's different. We really were hitting it off though before that. He even called me 'darling,' which was the sweetest."

Roman looked around desperately, seeing Dean starting to get up off the bench. He ran over and gathered his brother up in a bear hug. "Jesus, Dean…I love you; don't scare me like that again."

"Oh, sorry… I didn't realize you guys were in that kind of relationship," Abby mumbled while she scratched the side of her head, retreating back into the bar. "This is awkward."

"Dean, why were you trying to walk into the middle of the road? What's the matter with you, man?"

Dean frowned at Roman and rubbed his eyes, dazedly. "I don't really remember. It just sounded like a really good idea at the moment."

The yellow cab pulled up to the curb. Roman glared at the driver before pulling the door open and helping his brother in.

Back in the hotel room, Roman made sure Dean was settled in one of the beds. He waved off Dean's gruff echoes of "Stop your fussing; you ain't my mom," forcing the man to swallow his pride and take the tylenol and water he offered. When Roman was satisfied with his hangover prevention measures and motherly hen duties being performed, he actually tucked the blankets around the Lunatic Fringe and watched his brother fall asleep.

Several times, Roman had to subtly reach out to feel the gentle exhale of breath leaving Dean's body, to find Dean's pulse, and to sense the warmth inhabiting his skin and not slowly ebbing away, leaving a cold shell in its wake.

His brother was very much alive.

He was alive.

He was alive, just asleep.

Roman pressed his fingers against Dean's wrist, feeling for the steady thumpthumpthump of blood pumping throughout the course of his body in little rivers of life giving support - streams which ensured him his brother was still alive.

But some moments ago on the road, they meant something completely different when they were dripping from Dean's crown, when were they swimming down Dean's face, when they stopped dead in his veins.

Roman pulled his hand away from Dean's wrist, and he broke down, crying. What the hell had just happened?

Dean had been dead. Roman had seen him: losing heat, breathless, nothing in his eyes... He had been dead.

Wiping a hand across his eyes, Roman had to wonder if it had even happened? Or did some dark, twisted part of Roman's brain invent the scenario? Why would he imagine something that sick? But the conclusion it never happened was more enticing than the fact, which resounded in Roman's heart: Dean had died. Dean had died, and Roman had held his empty body in his arms.

Roman reached into his pocket to pull out the watch; he stared at the smooth metal cover before carefully opening the latch to reveal the watch face. Simple numerals lined the circumference of the face, surrounding four hands. However, across the face was a smear of red - of dried blood - of Dean's dried blood.

It really had happened.

Wanting to chuck the watch as far away as he could, Roman held it in lose fingers under a suspicious gaze. The unimposing gold object held an incredible power.

An incredible power that could very easily rectify all his problems regarding his wayward little brother.

Roman slowly grabbed his phone off the bedside table and opened up his photos, scrolling to the almost hidden photos in the tail-end of the gallery and stopping at one particular photo. It had been taken right after Seth and him had won the Tag Team Championship titles. In the photo, Roman was playing it cool with his expression schooled into a smooth smile and one arm thrown around Seth's shoulders. Seth's hair was a bird's nest of frizzy curls, and he wore the biggest, most cheesy grin. Seth's right arm was raised in the air holding his title and Roman's left arm did the same on the opposite side. They looked happy.

Once again, Roman glanced at Dean, taking in the sight of his little brother with his rising and falling chest and his parted mouth, which released soft snores. He had one brother with him, one loyal-to-a-fault brother. Was he just being selfish, wanting the other? Would he be tempting fate? Roman ran his free hand through his hair and couldn't help but think that line of questioning was really in Seth's territory. He was the one who had been tasked with thinking up each and every possibility; he was the Architect.

Roman sighed and glanced at the picture again, noticing the dark blob on the bottom of the frame, which was Dean's finger. The Lunatic Fringe never really mastered taking photos with a cell phone camera. However, it was sort of nice that something, which would normally be perceived as a mistake actually allowed both of his brothers to be present in the photo in some odd way.

They could be as close as they were once again… Better yet, they never would have stopped being close. All Roman had to do was turn back time.

All he had to do was spin the dials and turn back a moment in time.

Roman balanced his phone on his knee and ran his fingers over the face of the watch in his hand, feeling the contrast between the smooth glass and rough dried blood. He carefully spun the three dials on the right. He watched the spinning hands and snapped the cover shut.

He stared at the photo remaining on the phone screen before he closed his eyes and listened to the gentle inhale and exhale of Dean's breaths, losing himself in the sound.

Dean's snores jarred him back to reality. Roman shook his head, opening his eyes. There they were in the hotel room, moonlight filtering in through the window and Dean sleeping on the other bed.

Roman sighed. It didn't work; he was in the exact same place. He leaned back on the bed but abruptly stopped when he heard a groan and felt something solid behind him. What the hell?

Slowly, Roman turned around and saw himself…

Himself: one year and 5 months ago...

That Roman was lying on his stomach with his bruised and welted back exposed, sleeping.

HOLY SHIT, it did work!

* * *

I mean, I couldn't kill of Dean, not this early... :D And the fun _really_ begins here.

Please review and hopefully Crossfit Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, will rise tonight at Payback. I'm crossing my fingers. Ugh, yes, I mean Seth... ;)


	3. Chapter 2: I've Fixed Everything

And here's the next chapter.

 **Disclaimer:** I still don't own anything recognizable. :D

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Chapter Two: I've Fixed Everything

June 2, 2014 2:00 A.M.

Roman rubbed his chin. Where would Seth be? Well, the man was probably climbing the walls, stressing and obsessing over what he was planning to do the next night. And what did Seth do when he was stressed?

Duh, a stressed out Seth worked out.

He was likely out for a night run.

Roman dug through and stole a Hounds of Justice hoodie out of his past self's suitcase and pulled it on. He had to look the part if he was going to do this the right way. He took one last glance at his past self, still sleeping away before he left the hotel room. Thank god, he was dead as a doornail when he was asleep otherwise there would be no way this could work.

He made his way to the hotel lobby. After finding it empty, he sat down on one of the plush chairs in the lobby near the front door waiting for Seth to return from his night run.

In only a matter of minutes, Seth came gingerly walking back through the doors and looking exhausted. He paused in front of the doors, looking down at his Ipod screen. After a minute, the high flyer rolled his head and cracked his neck, noticing Roman sitting nearby. He frowned and walked over to his teammate, concerned about why his big brother was up and about.

"Big Dog, what the heck are you doing up? You should be upstairs resting." Seth's eyebrows were knitted and scrunched together tightly as his eyes radiated with concern.

Roman couldn't help but wonder how someone this concerned could betray his brothers in the next 24 hours. Seth obviously cared about him, about Dean. This was the man who willingly sacrificed himself on a nightly basis to protect them. He was worried about Roman's health and well-being when he planned on stabbing him in the back the next night, how strange.

"Rome?"

Roman looked up stoically at Seth from his seat on the plush chair, carefully watching as Seth sat down next to him. "A lot on your mind?"

A lot on his mind? That was a gross understatement. Seth always had a lot on his mind because of his role as the Architect of the Shield. He was always stressed; he always felt like the weight of the Shield was propped on his shoulders, and he was always running the risk of crumbling under its considerable weight. And tonight? The night before his life changed drastically? Where he would make a deal with the devil and sell out? No, not sell out but buy in; he was going to buy in... A lot on his mind? That was almost laughable for its too casual approach.

There was no way Roman knew any of that. Seth carried his personal demons close to his chest, and what he would do on RAW would silence them forever...hopefully. So Seth frowned unsure of where Roman was going with this impromptu chat. "What're you talking about?"

"You went on a night run. You only do that when you're stressed or need to think something over."

Seth fidgeted with the hem of his Crossfit T-shirt. "Well, course, I have a lot on my mind. We just beat Evolution again. I would have to be insane not to be stressed out right now. God knows what Hunter is planning. God forbid, it actually be over and we could be done with this mess."

If Roman didn't know what would happen the next night, he would have wholeheartedly accepted Seth's explanation without a single thought against it. "Yeah, I know what you're saying. And it would explain everything, but I have a feeling that's not it."

Seth frowned again, beginning to worry as his voice wavered slightly as he said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Roman sighed, knowing full well Seth was already considering what Hunter had offered him. "Maybe you were thinking about how you were feeling when you were climbing up the Titantron."

Seth stared at Roman. "What?"

"And you were trying to figure out why the hell you'd jump off."

"I know why I'd-"

"Because why would you take such a risk at a time like that? Yeah, you like the thrill. You don't feel alive without it, but you tend to risk more when there's something on the line. That's your MO. You gamble to get what you want, but you're also the 'd never make too big of a gamble. You take calculated risks. So normally, you wouldn't think twice before sacrificing yourself for me. Why tonight? Why would you sacrifice your body if you're planning on stabbing me and Dean, your brothers, your family in the back tomorrow night?"

Seth's mouth fell open. He looked frozen in time as he searched for what to say. "What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you being Hunter's little Plan B tomorrow night. I'm talking about your plan to beat me and Dean with a steel chair. I'm talking about your plan to betray us and join the Authority."

Seth ducked his head not wanting to make eye contact with his older brother out of shame. "How'd you find out?"

"Does it really matter?"

"I mean, I guess not. I just…" Seth looked so lost as he tugged on his loose hairs.

"Wanna walk me through this?" Roman wanted to reach out and pull his brother into a hug, but he didn't. No, he wanted answers. He wanted to know why Seth had thought this a good idea.

Seth shook his head; his eyes firmly trained on the coffee table in front of them. "Why the hell haven't you speared me or something yet? You should've killed me by now, or sicced Dean on me. I don't get it. You just fucking told me you knew I was planning on betraying you!"

Roman tentatively reached out and put his hand on Seth's shoulder. "Just talk to me, honestly, little brother and no lies. Tell me what is going on in that head of yours? I can't help you if I don't know."

"I was just - I guess... I- shit, this is going to sound stupid when I say it… I've been in the middle between you and Dean for the longest time. I feel like I'm stuck being the moderator, the peace keeper. It's too much; I feel like I'm going to suffocate from all the pressure that comes from keeping you and Dean from tearing each other's throats out. You remember the Wyatt match and what happened there... It's just, I get the feeling that it's never going to get better. Things between us are great now because we're riding a high from those victories, but what happens if we start losing? If one of us gets more support than the others? What will that do to the dynamic?" Seth paused and took a deep breath. "I know how partnerships end in this company. In disaster, in betrayal, or even worse... obscurity. They end with the universe not caring about some or all the wrestlers involved. I panicked when I realized there isn't much left for us to accomplish now. We're going to disband soon...You're destined to have an amazing future; people love you. Dean is something else, too. You'll both be fine. But me on the other hand I just don't think my future is as stable as yours… and I saw this opportunity. Triple H made me an offer that would ensure me a future with stability. I accepted. I don't want to be forgotten about after you and Dean are off being successful." Seth finally looked at Roman, revealing watery eyes and a bright red face as the loose strands of hair tried to hide the frustration and hurt on his face. "Why the fuck haven't you done anything to me, Roman? You should've jumped me at the arena. Left me for dead! You knew I was planning on betraying you! YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING, DAMN IT!"

"Seth," Roman said firmly as he met Seth's unsteady gaze, "Do you really think I care so little for you that a betrayal would make a difference? When I say 'family,' that's what I mean. I love you, Dean loves you, and you'll always be our little brother, our family."

Seth broke down; he couldn't hide the tears anymore, and Roman pulled him into a hug. Seth continued to sob into Roman's shoulders, wetting the other man's hoodie. Great, past Roman was going to be so annoyed be that, but he'd get over it if he got to keep his little brother. "I dunno what I'm supposed to do, big brother. Help me."

"You know, you don't always have to make the logical decision. Just don't think about the future or any those worst case scenario situations. Just think about what makes you happy. Even though you're the Architect, you can take a page out of Dean's book and think with your heart. It never hurt anyone before."

Seth pulled himself out of Roman's embrace, wiping his eyes and damp face. "You're saying, I can choose to decline Hunter's offer because selling out feels wrong?"

"Or because staying with your brothers feels right."

Seth appeared to be lost in thought before he began to nod. "It does feel right; it feels like home. When I'm with the two of you, I feel like I'm with family; I'm with my brothers; I'm home."

He sighed. "I don't know how you knew, Rome, but you just stopped me from making a decision that would've haunted me for the rest of my career, if not my life."

Roman managed a half-hearted smile, not wanting to really dwell on that line of thought. "That's what I'm here for."

He carefully stood up, making a big show of feigning soreness (While he was sore from the match from that night in 2015, it was nowhere near how bad he had felt on this night in 2014…).

"Crap, Roman, I'm sorry! Your back must be killing you right now. Come on, we'll get you some ice on the way back up to the room."

Roman waved off Seth's concern. "Don't worry about it. If you don't mind, I'll just meet you back at the room; I need to lie down and get some sleep. Man, did we take a beating tonight."

Seth smiled weakly. "I totally understand, man. Head up there; I'll be right up." The high flyer took off towards the vending area in search ice to help his brothers tend to their wounds.

Roman waited until Seth was out of sight before he pulled out the watch. He spun the dials forward, so he would travel to his present day during RAW. He smiled to himself.

He was getting his little brother back.

He snapped the cover shut and closed his eyes. He couldn't help but say, "I've fixed everything."


	4. Chapter 3: Turn Back the Dial, Again

**Disclaimer: Don't own anything recognizable**

* * *

Chapter Three: Turn Back the Dial, Again

November 2, 2015 9:00 P.M.

"What'd you fix?"

He opened his eyes to see Seth's aloof, but curious brown eyes focused on him. Roman's eyes zeroed in on a black compression brace on Seth's right wrist. Quickly, Seth pulled on his long sleeve shirt immediately covering his injury.

"What?" Roman asked, confused by Seth's actions and a bit worried about that brace.

"You just said something about fixing everything. What did you mean?"

Roman glanced around to see the same locker room, which he and Dean had inhabited during the present day RAW in Denver. Roman glanced down to see he was wearing the same Hounds of Justice sweatshirt he stole from his younger self. He grinned excited to see the fruits of his labor, "Nothing."

Seth gave him a look. No, not a look but the look he reserved for moments when he clearly thought his older brothers were insane. Roman had been very accustomed to receiving it during the Shield days, and he couldn't remember the last time he had seen it. Roman's smile grew even bigger as he pulled Seth into a big bear hug. The high flyer stood rigid in Roman's arms.

Seth awkwardly patted Roman on the back. "Okaaaaay, not that I don't appreciate random acts of affection but what the heck, man?"

Roman squeezed Seth tighter. "What? I can't hug my little brother whenever I want?"

Seth carefully extracted himself from Roman's too tight hold; he looked very uncomfortable. "I mean, not really... At least not for a while now."

"What do you mean?"

Seth sighed and leaned against the wall. "You really wanna discuss this right now, Rome? I mean, you know as well as I do when it all started."

Roman stared at Seth confused by what was happening. "Humor me then."

Seth's frown deepened, annoyed by Roman's clueless act. "Probably after the Wrestlemania fiasco and the rematch with Evolution… You know what, Roman? I don't really feel like talking about this crap again. You of all people should know what kind of hell that was… for all of us."

Seth grabbed his vest and started heading out of the locker room. "I'll meet you at gorilla in 30 minutes. You're in charge of finding Dean; I did it last time."

Roman stared at Seth's retreating figure. What the hell? Well, if Seth wouldn't give him answers, then he would have to find them himself.

He pulled out his phone and quickly googled Wrestlemania 2015 and clicked on the first Youtube video he saw, which happened to be the Wrestlemania video package with an attached highlights video. A familiar but gruff voice filled the room narrating the video.

"After the Shield beat us at Payback in 2014, they would have you believe they were still unified and strong. They wouldn't want me to mention how the Architect of the Shield, Seth Rollins nearly sold out and joined the Authority. No, those so-called Hounds of Justice would have you believe they are as close now as they were when they Shield would have you believe their bond is what makes them strong. They sacrifice themselves for one another because they are brothers." Triple H's commanding voice narrated as the man held a microphone in the ring. "But in reality, the Shield has more cracks in it than they would like to admit."

The video cut away from Triple H to several shots Roman could easily recognize: Seth trying to tag Dean or Roman, but finding both gone during their rematch with the Wyatt Family and the familiar scene of Seth walking out on the Shield.

After this point, Roman didn't recognize the clips.

He didn't recognize the one-on-one match where Seth was winning against Randy Orton only to find himself DQ'd as a result of Dean's interference. If Roman hadn't pulled the two apart, they would have started a high flyer's face was beyond livid as he stomped backstage with Roman trailing looking extremely apologetic and a still muttering and cursing Dean following.

He didn't recognize the backstage segment where Dean was apparently waiting for him and Seth. The Lunatic Fringe grew increasingly fidgety as he kept on glancing at the wall clock and muttering under his breath about where on earth his brothers were. However when the sound of footsteps filled the video, it wasn't himself or Seth who greeted Dean; no, it was the Wyatt Family. The video showed the resulting beat down. Roman and Seth didn't show up until after the Wyatts left, and Seth dragged Dean to go to get stitched up.

He didn't recognize the backstage confrontation between him and his brothers where they wondered why Roman was never the target of attacks. Authority goons would corner Seth and Dean, never Roman. Dean especially wondered if Roman had cut some kind of deal with someone in a higher place than them. Seth had snarled it was a mistake he almost made but hadn't; he never betrayed the Shield.

He didn't recognize the Royal Rumble match. Instead of his victory a part of him expected, something very different occured. It seemed like everybody was targeting the Shield. The brothers defended each other to their best ability until Seth was eliminated by a Demon Kane. As Dean turned to Roman beginning to yell at him with Roman yelling back, Kane seized Dean in a chokeslam as Sheamus Brogue kicked Roman. Both men were tossed over the top rope being eliminated from the match.

He didn't recognize the next clip, which depicted the middle of a match with Dean retracting his hand from Seth who was trying to make a tag and started walking out. However, before things turned too awful for the high flyer in the ring, Dean returned to the match and defended his brother who was the victim of a three on one attack since Roman was currently dazed on the apron. The weird thing was, he didn't seem too angry at Seth. Instead, he set up tandem moves with the high flyer, and they continued to move as a perfect team. No, instead of being mad at Seth, Dean seemed mad at Roman for not being able to watch Seth's back in the match without him...

He didn't recognize the next scene where Seth was facing Demon Kane in a match where Dean was banned from ringside. Seth was holding up just fine against the large man until "Line in the Sand" by Motorhead began playing. Seth froze for a second too long as Batista (who was apparently back?), Randy Orton, and Triple H began walking towards the ring. Kane took advantage of this distraction and put him in chokeslam. The impending beat down was difficult for Roman to watch, especially when Triple H shouted Seth had brought this down on himself and where were his brothers now?

"It looks like there are far too many times when the Shield has left their own members unprotected and vulnerable. It looks like Reigns has saddled himself with two men, who will only drag him down: one a gimp and the other a crazy Shield has too many cracks to remain whole after our No Hold Barred match at Wrestlemania, they will be shattered into a million pieces." Triple H smirked at the camera. "Believe that."

The match highlights were difficult to watch. Roman couldn't believe how efficiently the reformed (the re-reformed?) Evolution was able to completely squash the Shield. The match seemed to be relatively short and brutal. The end of the match saw Dean strapped into a straitjacket with additional restraints preventing Dean moving from one of the turnbuckles. Dean should be grateful, Triple H pointed out; his seat was the best in the arena. JBL yelled about how Evolution fixed the Lunatic problem. A prone Seth was dragged into the ring and held upright by Orton and Batista in front of Dean. The high flyer received a sledge hammer hit to the head, which left him completely out of it and one to his right wrist; Michael Cole noted Triple H was making good on his promise to rip the Architect's wings out. Dean screamed bloody murder at Triple H threatening to kill the Cerebral Assassin. Roman was Triple Power Bombed through the announce table; JBL commented about how that would serve Roman right for mouthing off to the boss. Evolution stood tall, mocking the Shield by doing the signature fist pose.

Roman suddenly understood why Seth hadn't wanted to relive this. It was a like living in a nightmare that never truly ended. Roman quickly pulled on his ring gear; he was unsurprised to see it was an unchanged Shield vest and plain black pants. He walked out of the locker room, wondering where he'd find Dean.

After checking catering and a few of the other locker rooms, Roman began to worry. He wondered if he should ask Seth for a hint, but he hesitated when he remembered their cold encounter earlier. He really couldn't blame Seth though; Roman had expected things to go so much better for him and his brothers once they were all back together… He decided to head down to the boiler room to check, that was where crazy Dean normally hung out, right?

"Mister Reigns! Wait a moment!"

Roman stopped as a pretty, young woman in skinny jeans, a blazer, and wrestling t-shirt caught up to him. "Can I help you, babygirl?"

"Did you lose your Lunatic?" She asked, brushing a lock of copper hair out of her face.

"You found Dean? Where is he?" Roman asked wanting to know if his little brother was alright.

"Come on, I'll take you to him." The young woman waved Roman to follow her to one of the offices. "I'm Marie by the way. I work in the marketing side of WWE. I left my desk for less than 5 minutes to grab a report from that damn printer, and when I got back, Dean was there, and he claimed my desk for himself. He asked if he could stay and keep me company while I worked."

Roman raised an eyebrow, marveling about how strange this situation was. "How long is awhile?"

Marie glanced at her phone for the time. "About 2 hours- like I said before, he seemed agitated. He seemed to calm down; it might have been because of the sound of my typing. So I let him stay for awhile because he seemed… very agitated about something, but then I realized Shield has a match tonight. I thought he should go to the gorilla, but he didn't want to."

Marie opened the door to one of the offices. She led Roman to a desk and stopped in front of it.

"Where is he?" Roman asked, confused not seeing his brother in the immediate surroundings.

Marie pointed to the desk adorned with pictures of what he assumed were the girl's family and friends. Then he caught a glimpse of what was underneath the desk. Roman peered underneath it to see a crouching Dean Ambrose. Dean watched Roman as he casually ate a chocolate pudding cup. The Lunatic Fringe didn't have any plastic utensils, but only used his fingers to scoop up another bite, licking them one by one.

"Hello Uce," Dean said in his gravelly voice, but a bit darker than normal, "I like Marie; she keeps snacks in her lunchbox that I can have if I ask nicely."

Roman furrowed his eyebrows. What the hell? For some reason, he couldn't eradicate the mental image of Dean in the straitjacket from his mind. "Come on out of there, Dean. We need to get going. We have a match tonight."

Dean scrunched up his face in distaste at the idea of leaving. "But I like it down here, Uce. It's small but not enclosed. I can see everything. It's safe down here. I'm safe down here."

Roman crouched down, so he was eye-level with Dean. "But we need to go; Seth is waiting for us."

"Sethie? Where's Sethie?" Dean's eyes widened in concern.

Roman began to explain the situation, calmly. "He's waiting for us-"

"Sethie's alone?" Dean shook his head worried. "That's not good. He shouldn't be alone. Sethie gets hurt when he's alone. You shouldn't let him out of your sight, Uce." Dean slowly crawled out from underneath the desk. He nodded at Marie. "Thank you, lady, for lending me your desk."

Marie smiled fondly at the Lunatic Fringe. "No problem, good luck tonight."

Dean gave her a lopsided salute and took off towards the gorilla, the half-full pudding cup still in hand.

Roman rushed to catch up with the Lunatic Fringe. "Where's the fire, Dean?"

Dean glanced at Roman. "With how we've been treated since March? I'd be surprised if he's still in one piece. And I don't care what the little ninja says; his wrist hasn't healed right."

"What makes you think that?"

Dean shrugged one shoulder and gestured wildly with his hands. "It's not how he acts when he knows you're looking. No, it's how he acts when he thinks no one is. Jokes on him. I'm always there, watching my baby brother. He's better than most of the clowns here when it comes to thinking I'm not totally batshit-"

"Dean," Roman said, interrupting him unsure of where all this was coming from, "I don't think you're batshit."

Dean shot him a boyish grin. "Awe, thanks Uce. Nice to hear it even though it's a complete lie. You've told me how you felt enough times... And shh - shh - shhhhh, it's fine. I get."

Roman frowned. How could his brother think that? Still, it wasn't false; the Lunatic Fringe seemed to be even more deserving of his nickname than ever before, but Roman would never tell him that. Right? Right?

Dean dipped one of his fingers in the pudding and stirred it around a couple of times as he continued to say, "Sethie's the one with the most faith in me now, but he still doesn't give me enough credit. I can be a fly on the wall; I notice things. I see him sometimes, rubbing that wrist. And when he's playing in the Crossfit gym, he stays away from the ropes like they're going to attack him. He used to shake those things like a hyperactive chipmunk. Then I see times when he makes a face if he bends it the wrong way. I think that freaking sledgehammer did more damage than he is willing to let on. That's our Sethie: loyal to a tee and never says die even in excruciating pain."

There was a silence between the two men, which was only broken by Dean's messy slurping of the pudding.

"You get the feeling he resents us? Because of the Triple H situation?" Roman found himself asking, unsure if he even wanted to know Dean's thoughts on this.

Dean gave Roman a look like he thought Roman was the crazy one. "You serious, Uce?"

Roman nodded. "Yeah"

"Sethie doesn't have any beef with me, Uce. We're good; we're brothers." Dean scratched his messy curls. "You on the other hand...he's…"

"He's what?"

"He's not the happiest with you. Sometimes, I think he hates you more than Triple H." Dean glanced at Roman out of the corner of his eye. "But you knew that."

"What did I do?" Roman wondered if Seth was mad he turned down Triple H's offer.

"Aside from the obvious? I guess part of it has to do with how you acted when he had the cast on." Dean shrugged. "I think he took it personally that you weren't there for that Wyatt ambush. He wasn't allowed at ringside, and you weren't there for me."

Roman stopped walking; it took Dean a couple of steps before he realized Roman wasn't next to him. "Why wasn't I there?"

Dean shrugged, like the entire occurrence hadn't impacted him at all. "You said you had your reasons. I know you took your little temper tantrum against Hunter very seriously. Don't worry about it. I was only out for a week with the concussion and Wyatts didn't get the chance to turn me into a swamp ape thanks to fucking John Cena and our boy, Sethie."

Roman started walking again with Dean; his mind was reeling with the idea of him leaving Dean to fend for himself. "I just...I feel bad about it."

"I'm not holding a grudge and not just because I can't remember the night that well... We've all made mistakes. Seth almost sold out. You went AWOL. And me? Well, I guess there's always an exception to the rule. "

When they got to the meeting spot, they found Seth warming up by doing a handstand against the wall. His face lit up when he saw Dean. He flipped over and pulled the other man into a hug. "Where you've been, bro?"

Dean grinned. "Around. A pretty girl gave me pudding."

Seth smiled, fondly unsure of how to take that. "I can't tell if you mean pudding literally or if that's some weird slang for something. Either way good for you, man; sounds like a nice afternoon. Better than mine." Seth threw a glare at Roman over Dean's shoulder.

Dean messed up Seth's hair. "You know it's good for you to spend time with each other."

Seth rolled his eyes. "Why don't we just survive this 3 on 11 match and go from there?"

Dean's answer was another casual shrug, and he glanced at Roman. "Sounds good to me. What does Uce think?"

"Sure...Wait, did you say 3 on 11? Why would we be in a 3 on 11 match? We were done with those after the breakup..."

Dean focused wide blue eyes with a look of disbelief at Roman, while Seth shot him a look of great-we're-still-playing-this-clueless-and-slightly-delusional game.

Then Dean burst out laughing; he bent forward, clutching his abdomen. "Man, Uce! You haven't cracked a joke in the longest time! Not since the one about Seth being an over-dramatic skunk head! But, that… that was a good one!"

Seth glared at Roman over the still-laughing Dean. "Over-dramatic skunk head? Really Roman? We're all adults here, can't we act more like it?"

"I didn't...I don't remember saying that," Roman said; his defense sounded weak even to him.

"Yeah, yeah and that just makes it so much better…" Seth bit his lip before taking a deep breath, seeming to keep himself from saying something he would later regret.

"Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Shield"

Seth spun on his heel and strode out while mumbling under his breath, "Let's get this over with."

Dean smiled at Roman in almost a conspiratorial way. "You know, I think something you said upset him."

"Something I said? And why are we entering through the stage and not the crowd?"

"We haven't done that since April. Don't you remember, Uce?" Dean grinned and practically ran out to catch up to Seth.

Roman sighed even more confused than he already was and followed Dean out to the ring.

For the first time in a very long time, Roman wasn't greeted with a solid chorus of boos. It was strange; Roman was so used to the boos by now that anything else was foreign, erie.

But Roman wasn't greeted with boos; no, he was greeted by nothing. It wasn't silence per se; there was still the general background noises: muffled conversations, flutters of movement when someone got up or switched seats, the calls of drink venders… But no one cheered, and no one booed. The crowd was indifferent.

Roman glanced around at the seated masses, feeling bewildered. Why didn't anyone care the Shield was making its way to the ring?

He could see Seth climb to the middle rope on one of the turnbuckles and throw his arms up to a few scattered, smattering of claps and cheers. Dean did the same on the other turnbuckle to the same effect plus one "AMBOOTY" call. Roman carefully climbed one of the other turnbuckles, and he observed the occasional fan or two politely clap for him.

What was this crap? People loved the Shield before the breakup. They were the very definition of "over." Why weren't the fans cheering now?

Seth and Dean didn't seemed phased by this reaction. They seemed not only used to it, but they had expected this reception. Most of the fans believed the Shield had run its course. And the faction had been together for far too long. They were boring now.

When Lillian announced the the eleven members of the opposing side, Roman was unsurprised to hear they were facing the New Day, Big Show, Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Rusev, Kane, and Kevin Owens. He wasn't expecting her to announce Randy Orton's name, who apparently never turned face or was injured, nor did he expect to hear NXT's Baron Corbin's name. The large man had apparently been called up last month, and Dean practically hissed when he saw the Lone Wolf.

As Dean paced back and forth behind them, Seth (seemingly forgetting his frustration with the Samoan) leaned over to Roman, and with his voice barely audible over the massive cheers for their opponents, Seth muttered, "Corbin's a prick and Orton… He's one episode away from a cushy cell in solitary confinement. I don't like this."

"I...don't know much about that Baron guy." And this was very true. All Roman knew was Corbin was in NXT from when he was from; he hadn't had any encounters with the man.

Seth stopped himself from criticizing Roman for his continuous obliviousness and decided to give him a real answer. "None of us really do. He was called up and interfered with Cena's match with Del Rio. After he caused the DQ, he beat the shit out of Cena. He seems like a wild card here. Watch out for Orton; he seems way too happy right now, which can't mean anything good for us"

"Okay Seth, you usually have a good feel for these situations. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him," Roman said while he watched Orton climb the ropes to do his signature pose. The Viper smirked at him and Seth.

Seth looked at Roman surprised and actually smiled, like he was surprised Roman would listen to his advice and take him seriously.

Dean stopped his pacing from somewhere behind Roman and Seth to mumble, "Usual suspects. Should be a piece of cake. We got this in the bag."

Seth rolled his eyes but couldn't help the fond grin from forming on his face. "You pumped up, Dean?"

Dean smirked. "I feel good tonight. I could take out all these guys on my own."

"Wanna start out then?" Seth asked rubbing his wrist.

Dean watched Seth rub his wrist and then meeting the high flyer's eyes. "You really needed to ask? I got this, bro."

Seth grinned and climbed onto the apron with Roman following suit. Dean squared up against Rusev.

Dean did not take out all eleven opponents.

Pretty early on in the match, Dean took a bump, which really rattled the Lunatic Fringe and since then, he seemed out of it. He and Seth would tag each other in and out, avoiding tagging Roman.

A part of Roman understood. Seth had so much resentment built up against him, it wasn't even funny. On the other hand, he didn't understand Dean's reluctance to tag him. While Dean and he didn't seem to have the best of relationship, the Lunatic Fringe seemed to at least trust him and didn't seem to hold anything at all against him. Well, Roman doubted if Dean held anything against anyone nowadays; the man seemed... vacant.

The two avoided tagging him, and they would have kept doing this until the end of the match if Dean hadn't been completely rendered senseless on the floor outside the ring after a cheap shot by Baron Corbin.

Seth froze when he realized Dean wasn't on the apron; his hand stopped reaching in midair to the partner that wasn't there. The high flyer looked at Roman and seemed to struggle mentally with himself.

"Ah yes, everything seems hunkey dorey to little-ole me!" A Southern accented voice said before the speaker broke into giggles.

Roman froze and glanced behind him. Sitting in the front row in a Hounds of Justice T-shirt was none other than Marty. How had Roman not noticed her before? The strange woman made an odd show of pointedly looking at a spot on the floor next to the ring, which was strange since there was nothing there... Then she flipped her dark brown hair over her shoulder and smirked at Roman before she made a gesture for him to turn back around and pay attention to the match.

However, it was too late; Roman's moment of preoccupation was too much. During his brief moment of distraction, Seth had tried to make a tag, leaping out with his hand extended; however, Roman didn't tag him. No, the Powerhouse was too busy crowd watching to participate in the match. Seth felt tendrils of rage radiate through him, but before he could scream at Roman, he was yanked backwards by Baron Corbin and effortlessly flung into the opposing corner.

Randy Orton tagged himself into the match. Corbin looked livid for a moment before he decided to exit the ring and hang on the apron. Orton beelined it to Seth in the corner and began to rain down punches on the man. Then Orton picked up Seth in an Exploder suplex, tossing him backwards over his shoulder and Seth landed in a heap face down.

Roman glanced down at Dean who was just beginning to stir. He didn't like where this was heading; he trusted this Orton far less than the one that turned against The Authority. This version seemed far less willing to think for himself than the one away from the Authority had. Perhaps it stemmed from a bratty Seth not trying to steal his golden boy role. Whatever the reason behind Orton's erratic behavior, Roman would protect his brothers. He was just about to enter the ring when the official spun around and held him back, telling him his partners hadn't tagged him in.

Orton made eye contact with Roman who was still being held back by the official, and the Viper smirked at the predicament. Orton's smirk grew and his eyes lit up as though he was just struck by the most brilliant epiphany of his life. He turned back to Seth and targeted the Architect's right wrist with a vicious stomp. Seth screamed, rising up into a kneeling position,clutching his wrist. Orton smirked as he backed up to set himself up for his punt kick.

Orton began charging at Seth, but before he could perform the finisher, Dean flung himself from the ropes and dove into Orton. The Lunatic Fringe began punching Orton in his typical scrappy brawler style.

Dean's defense was halted when he was tossed out of the ring by an interfering Kane, and Roman's was prevented altogether when he was pulled off the apron by Baron Corbin. As the Lone Wolf yanked on his leg, the gold watch fell out of Roman's pocket and skidded across the floor. Roman glanced at it, taking in the sight without really comprehending what he saw. Before Roman could do anything, Corbin put the Samoan into the End of Days. In the ring, a slightly dazed but still smirking Orton hooked one of Seth's legs for a pin. Seth was too busy holding his wrist in pain to kick out.

Seth, still grasping his wrist, rolled out of the ring. He bypassed Roman completely and staggered to Dean. Dean pulled himself to his feet and grabbed Seth into a side hug.

Beneath the noise from the crowd and the sound of their opponents in the ring still celebrating, Roman could hear his brothers muttering to each other.

"Stop that, Dean. It's not your fault."

"How bad does it feel? You think it's broken? I'll kill that snake. See how far he can slither after he meets a weed wacker."

"No, don't do that. You'll end up in jail."

"Not if the pieces left over are small enough that no one finds them."

Roman propped himself up on his elbows to look at his brothers, who were still huddled together talking in hushed tones. A soft peal of laughter from the ringside seats behind him caused Roman to glance into the crowd. Marty bowed her head forward as her body shook with laughter, which bordered on hysterics. She made eye contact with Roman and winked. Roman scowled and glanced back at his teammates.

Seth was shaking his head at Dean in exasperation, still clutching his wrist. "Dean, bad idea, like worse than the the time you-"

"Your dog eats meat, right?" Dean asked interrupting whatever regrettable situation Dean had put him in in the past.

Seth sighed and began to say, "Dean, Kevin is way too small to be-"

"Wait! You're avoiding the question! How's it feel?"

"Like shit," Seth's face was an unreadable deadpan, but Roman could see his eyes were kind of watery, and he was biting his lip.

Dean immediately sprung into action. With his arms still wrapped around Seth's shoulders, he began leading the Architect to the back. The two wasted no spare glances back at Roman as they left him behind.

Sighing, Roman glanced back to the crowd, only to see Marty was gone and n her place was a vacant chair.

Roman got to his feet. He averted his gaze from the crowd, preferring to study the floor instead; he felt embarrassed by the match. It wasn't the fact they had lost, but how they could not function as a team. As Roman began to trudge to the back, he noticed a glint of gold by the ring. His eyes widened as he recognized the familiar watch, and patted his pockets to be sure it was what he thought. Oddly enough, the watch had ended up in the same spot Marty had focused on earlier; was it possible the woman knew it was going to fall before it did? And what was she doing here anyways? Roman snatched up the pocket watch, feeling what appeared to be several superficial scratches on the back of it. Roman then hurried to the back.

Once he reached the Shield's locker room, he collapsed onto the small couch and buried his head in his arms. What was this reality? Everything was supposed to be perfect with his brothers reunited once again. And this...this world wasn't even close to what he'd expected. He thought after his confrontation with Seth, everything was remedied.

Wait, maybe Roman had approached this all wrong! Maybe it was the fact he confronted Seth...Maybe if he had just gone about it more subtly, everything would be different. Roman could fix this. He would fix this.

Roman pulled on the Hounds of Justice hoodie he wore when he arrived at this time. Before he tossed the vest aside, he pulled out the pocket watch from where he'd stashed it in one of his pockets. He could do this. He would do this. He spun the dials once again and closed his eyes to turn back a moment in time once again.

* * *

Please, review


	5. Chapter 4: Click, Click, Click

So here's the next chapter. Thanks again to Captain for editing, and again I'm sorry to her for possibly giving her nightmares and causing her to worry even more for my sanity... You'll understand her concerns after reading this chapter. ;)

 **Disclaimer:** To quote a Lunatic, "Nope"

* * *

A Moment in Time. I'll Turn Back

Chapter Four: Click, Click, Click

 _June 2, 2014 2:15 A.M._

His eyes shot open when someone bumped into him.

"Discúlpame," the man mumbled as he veered around Roman and continued meandering down the hallway.

"It's fine," Roman replied, still attempting to regain his bearings on the situation. He glanced around and recognized the door to the hotel room. Okay, he was back to the early morning hours in 2014 before the betrayal.

The man glanced back at the Samoan after taking a couple steps away and peered blearily at him. "I swear you weren't there a second ago, muchacho. It's like you appeared out of nowhere...but maybe I shouldn't have drank that last one. Cuídate, muchacho." He continued to wander down the hallway and away from Roman.

Roman sighed and tried to picture where he (or rather the past him?) would be now. He was either in the room or down in the lobby, waiting for Seth. Since he didn't have a room key, he would just head that way and try to stop himself.

"Roman?"

He froze when he heard Dean's raspy and sleep laden voice.

"Roman, what are you doing out here? I swear you were passed out a second ago in the room."

Roman took a deep breath and forced his expression into a grin as he turned around to face Dean. "Dean, bro, you must be out of it. I've been out here for a while. I couldn't sleep, so I'm just going for a walk."

Dean scratched his crazy curls, staring at Roman suspiciously, but instead of voicing his disbelief, he shrugged. "Eh, give me a break. I just woke up. I'm still out of it from that fucking sledgehammer. I mean I gotta be. There's no possible way you're in two places at once. I'm not that much of a lunatic." Dean let out a soft chuckle and stifled a yawn.

Roman's grin faltered slightly unsure why Dean was out here. "What are you doing awake, man?"

Dean yawned again, not hiding it this time. "My growling stomach woke me up. I just thought I'd grab something out of the vending machines and go back to bed."

Roman nodded. "Sounds good." He turned to walk down to the lobby.

"Hey wait, big dog. You want me to walk with you?"

Roman shook his head quickly. "I just need a few minutes alone."

Dean shrugged. "If you say so. I'll see you in the room then." He turned and wandered off towards the vending area in search of some form of sustenance Roman assumed.

Roman rushed off towards the lobby and saw himself sitting on one of the plush arm chairs, facing the lobby doors drumming his fingers impatiently waiting for Seth. Quickly, he strolled through the lobby as he closed the distance between them and grabbed his double's arm yanking him out of the chair.

"What the-?"

"Shut up! Trust me here!"

Roman began pulling his double to a door, which was labeled Staff Only. As he struggled to pull the door open, he froze when he saw Seth enter through the lobby doors, looking down at his Ipod. Roman's double reached out and pushed the door open. Roman felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment as he and the double practically fell into the room with the door falling shut behind them.

In the lobby, Seth looked up at the sudden slam of the door, seeing nothing, he shrugged and walked back to the Shield's shared hotel room.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Roman's double seethed out.

"I'm saving our ass here. It wasn't going to work, and I'm saving you the trouble!" Roman growled back.

"Oh my God, you're twins!"

The two Romans turned to see the hotel concierge staring at them. They looked at each other again with identical oh shit expressions. If this woman knew anything about WWE, they were so incredibly screwed.

"I love WWE! My boyfriend and I watch every Monday night!"

Yep, they were screwed.

"That's right, babygirl," the double spoke up in a velvety tone. Roman was slightly horrified at just how weird it was seeing himself try to flirt with a woman. There were some things you weren't supposed to see yourself do in life and this was probably one of them. "We're the Usos. Can you believe we're not actually identical?"

"You guys look so much bigger and stronger in real life!"

"The camera takes off like 30 pounds," Roman found himself explaining, and his double gave him a yeah-like-she'll-believe-that look.

The woman giggled. "Oh, I always thought it was the opposite way. I thought the camera added weight on."

Roman's double shrugged. "You wouldn't believe how many people think that."

"You totally reminded me of the Shield guy when you said that. So weird."

"We are cousins," Roman said, hurriedly, praying she wouldn't catch on to anything. Last thing he needed was some random fangirl realizing their were two of him, that would be disastrous for him, for the fangirl not so much.

"You're cousins with the guy with the blonde streak? I totally wouldn't have seen the resemblance if you hadn't pointed it out." She tilted her head and closely scrutinized the two Romans. "Not so much the eyes or the jaw or the lips or the noses… Oh, the cheek bones! You have the same cheeks!"

The two Romans exchanged bewildered looks before the double nodded. "We get that all the time."

After signing some paper with the hotel's name on it, the woman asked for a photo with them.

"Well, my brother will take a picture with you. I can't stand having my photo taken. You get it, right?" The double explained. Immediately, Roman understood the double didn't know what having two of them in the picture would do, maybe tear a rip in the space time continuum? Well, it was better Roman be safe than sorry on this one.

The woman frowned. "No, I don't. Why's that?"

"Samoan folklore - there's a belief that the camera will steal your soul," Roman said with a shrug immediately coming up with a lie. "My twin is very superstitious, more so than me."

"Oh," the woman said. "That makes perfect sense!" She quickly snapped a selfie with Roman. "Sorry, I've kept you so long; I should get back to the desk. Thanks!"

The girl pulled open the door and left the two Romans in the employee only lounge.

"Wow... I didn't think it would be that easy to talk our way out of that one," Roman said with a sigh.

"You got that right…" The double sighed and leaned against the counter which housed a microwave and mini fridge for the convenience of the staff. "Now you want to explain to me what the hell you're doing here? And why did you stop me from talking to Seth? I could have fixed everything, man. I could have made things the way they were! We could have gotten our little brother back!"

Roman crossed his arms and stood his ground. "I know, I know. I thought the same thing when I was in your position. I just came back from November 2, 2015 and... it wasn't good. Something we did screwed up the future."

"What do you mean screwed up the future? Wasn't the future already screwed up to begin with?" Roman's double looked concerned with his forehead furrowed in worry.

Roman ran a hand through his hair as he thought about where to start explaining, he felt even more disappointed by the failure of his mission. "Evolution reformed and destroyed us. They made Dean go insane and not just Lunatic Fringe insane either. He acted like he had the mind of a five-year-old. He didn't trust me - us; all he wanted to do was hide under someone's desk, eating snacks. They messed up Seth's wrist, and he hated me... us. Seth blamed us for everything. Our little brothers just didn't trust us; they wouldn't tag me in during a match. It wasn't better; it was worse. It seemed like instead of getting both our brothers, we lost them and their emotional trust and support in us."

"And instead of our close brotherhood, we got a superficial relationship because neither of them had a choice. To Dean, the Shield is his only family, so he couldn't leave. And when Seth declined Hunter's offer, he burned all those bridges," the double mirrored Roman's actions quickly catching on to the explanation as he idly ran a hand through his hair, too.

Roman nodded and marveled about how nice it was to have someone on the same wavelength as himself. "Exactly. It's just disappointing. I was positive it would work."

The double frowned. "Maybe, we shouldn't have tried to be so blunt."

Roman frowned. "You think so?"

The double shrugged. "I'm just going off on a limb here, but maybe we should try a different approach."

Roman rubbed his beard. "Maybe if we just...this is going to sound bad, but if we guilt him into turning Triple H down, maybe that would fix everything. Seth will decide for himself, so he won't feel like he was forced into it. He won't resent us then. Yeah...This could work!"

The double smiled. "Maybe it will! Ten minutes before we go out for that Orton match, we'll turn to Seth and tell him how much everything means to us. How much we trust him and how much he means to us, how much he means to the Shield, to Dean, to our family. Just really lay it on thick. He'll realize what a mistake he was about to make and reconsider."

Roman grinned. "That could work."

His double shrugged and smiled even larger. "I have a good feeling about this plan."

As Roman smiled, he was not just happy to have formulated a new plan. No, he was relieved by the fact he wasn't in this alone anymore. He didn't have to approach the situation as Roman versus the world or even one versus all. He had help. He could confer with someone else and get a second opinion. Yes, it was technically himself, but still, he could rely on his own support system. It felt good to know someone had his back.

Roman, still smiling, told his double, "It was really stressful being in this alone, but now that I have someone with me; I think this is really doable."

"We'll be unstoppable."

"Believe that."

Roman couldn't help the big grin from appearing on his face. Finally, someone who appreciated that catch phrase as much as he did. Well, it was technically himself but still...

The double stopped abruptly, dead in his tracks. His expression transformed from the happy-go-lucky grin to a confused grimace. His arms clutched at his abdomen.

"What's wrong?" Roman asked quickly, worried about himself.

The double shook his head and frowned. "I don't know. I feel kind of off now. It's like my torso is burning or something."

Roman immediately wrote off the use of the word "burning" as just a way to describe a muscle ache. "What can I do to help? Is it still from tonight's match? Should I find you an ice pack?"

The double opened his mouth to respond and grimaced even further. "I- I…" The double was having difficulty finding the words to describe what was happening. One of his hands drifted up to grasp at his chest.

"Hey, talk to me. I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." Roman's voice came out rushed due to his mounting panic.

"It's my-my…" The double tried to speak but he began coughing lightly. "It's like I'm being burned from the inside." His coughing turned to full out hacking. He turned away from Roman, choosing to lean against the counter for support, facing the wall.

Roman stepped closer to the double. What the hell was happening? The double began coughing even harder and an arch of blood spattered against the counter and the wall.

The double froze in mid-hack and turned to face Roman. Roman reached out a hand to give some kind of comfort or support to his double, but he paused mid-reach when his double looked him dead in the eyes, his eyes burning with anger and malice as he began speaking.

"This-this is all your f-f-fault!" The double bit out. "If y-you hadn't come back to this time, I would be being here screwed everything up!" He shouted as his body seemed to sag even more as though the internal structure, his very bones, were disintegrating inside him.

Roman stared at the double, horrified. This was his fault. Him coming back to this point resulted in too many Romans in one place, and he was canceling out his past self's actions, which made him obsolete in this time stream. Marty had even mentioned tripling up on your self in the same point of time created its own mess of problems…and he had been foolish enough to do such a thing.

As the double sent a withering glare back at Roman, the skin around his eyes began sagging, exposing the white of the skull around his eyes. The double seemed to use the last of his strength to turn away . He all but fell onto the counter, unable to support his own body weight. He continued to crumble into himself until there was nothing left but a bubbling puddle of red, pooling onto the counter, dripping slowly onto the floor.

With his arm still hovering mid-air, Roman couldn't tear his gaze away from the spot where his double had melted.

Roman half-expected to vanish, too.

As Roman stared transfixed at the puddle, it began to evaporate at a rapid pace, leaving not a single trace behind. Roman felt almost nervous to remain at this point in time; would he have the same fate as his poor double? Maybe he should just return to his own time stream and not meddle in any more events…

No, the plan he and his double formulated had been a good one. It could work. It would work. He owed it to himself and his brothers to fix things.

With shaking hands (nothing he did caused them to cease motion), he carefully turned the hour dial forward several turns. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes not wanting to rewatch the horror of seeing himself disintegrate again. He focused his thoughts on the steady clicking, clickclickclick, of the wall clock listening and feeling the seconds passing by as he traveled forward in time once again to save his family, his little brothers.

 _Click Click Click_


	6. Chapter 5: Every Shot Has a Flipside

CHAPTER FIVE: Every shot has a flipside.

June 2, 2014 9:03 PM

 _Click Click Click_

Roman slowly opened his eyes. He was standing in the middle of a deserted hallway in front of a door to a janitor's closet. He stood there trying to regain his bearings while a woman in a business suit and a pair of black stilettos was walking by him. Her warm brown eyes raked up and down his body as she gave him a seductive smile while her shoes continued to _Click Click Click_ on the floor.

Roman stared at her as she passed him by. She looked oddly familiar. Did he know her? Or was she just one of those behind the scenes WWE employees he saw a million times, but never actually met first hand?

She flicked her dark brown hair over her shoulder and for a second, it flashed a steel grey in the dimly lit hallway. Quickly, she turned down the hallway and vanished around the corner.

"Wait, Marty?" Roman all of a sudden recalled. He sprinted around the corner and saw nobody. The hall was deserted with no doors, which could have led her a different route; she had just disappeared into thin air.

Why did he get the feeling Marty was watching his every move for her own entertainment? He shook his head; maybe it wasn't even her…

"I'm just pointing out that those cream puffs are vulnerable tonight. They just lost Bluetista. We should come up with a more aggressive plan and take advantage of Evolution's loss." Dean's voice echoed slightly down the vacant hallways.

"What do you think they'll do? We destroyed them last night, and I'll beat Orton tonight. It's all good." Roman's own voice answered Dean's from a little ways down the hall.

Roman's head jerked back to where Marty had just disappeared to see three giant shadows appearing further down in the hallway. Shit. Roman ran back to where he first appeared and forced the door to the janitor's closet open. He slipped inside and kept the door open a crack to listen in on this old conversation.

"What's on your mind? You're quiet tonight, Seth," past Roman's deep voice rumbled.

"Yeah, I didn't think it was possible for you to go _this_ long without talking."

"Ha ha ha, very funny, Dean. I just have a lot on my mind. You know, I think I'm going to go for a walk. I need to clear my head - think of a contingency plan if Hunter tries anything tonight."

"Well, in that case, I'm going to go do my usual routine. I'll meet you two at our entrance mark."

If Roman remembered correctly, now would be his opportunity. He creaked open the door slightly. His other self was leaning one shoulder against the wall, facing the opposite direction and messing with his Iphone. Roman noticed the tell-tale signs of the cord for his white earbuds connecting to the phone. Perfect.

He slipped around the door and carefully headed in the opposite direction. As he turned the corner, he could see the other Roman sighing and pulling the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head as he sat down against the wall. His past self focused on the phone as he read something, probably notes about his pre-match workout. He would remain there until he made his way to the boy's meeting place for their entrance.

Roman continued down the hall and was glad to see Seth, disappearing into the room the Shield had commandeered as their locker room, alone.

Roman sighed. He could do this. He would do this. He followed Seth into the room. As the door swung shut, Seth grabbed his hair, ducking his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered under his breath sounding completely conflicted with himself.

"Hey, you got a minute?"

Seth's head jerked up in surprise. "What are you doing here, Rome? I said I needed to clear my head. Plus, you should be getting ready for your match."

Roman frowned. "I'm just worried about you, man. You seem distressed. I know things have been stressful lately with everything with Evolution, but you have to know I'm here for you. Dean and I both are. You don't have to feel like you have to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders all the time."

Seth was making an effort to compose himself, straightening his shoulders and neutralizing his facial expression. "Course, I know that. I'm well aware of it."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? I'm glad you do, Seth. I really just wanted to let you know I love you; you are my brother, and you will always be."

Seth bit his lip and went for what must have been a smile. "I know."

Roman knew he was going to have to really work over Seth to get him to change his mind. What better way to do so than to pull out Seth's own thoughts? Roman smiled at the high flyer. "That's a relief to hear… I just worry sometimes. You can call it big brother intuition or some crap like that, but I really worry about you sometimes, little brother."

Seth almost flinched at the little brother label. "Yeah? And why do you worry about me?" He looked down at his gloves and fiddled with them.

Roman shrugged, like these were some blase observations. "Sometimes I'm afraid Dean and I put too much pressure on you, and it's not fair to you at all."

Seth paused from where he was adjusting his gloves. He looked up at Roman with big deer-in-the-headlights eyes. "...What?"

"We stick all the tactics and strategizing with you, which I know you enjoy. Let's face it; you're a mad genius." Roman tousled Seth's hair affectionately. "But some of the other crud we stick you with...like making you always play the peacekeeper between the two of us? I can't imagine how hard that must be. And half the time, we're not even grateful towards you, which isn't right, man."

It was almost comical how wide open Seth's mouth was. Then again, Roman was parroting issues, which had eaten away at Seth's faith in him and Dean for months now...

Roman continued, "It must really take it's toll on you. I know sometimes, we come _this_ close to killing each other, and you're stuck separating us and talking us down. Don't get me wrong here; I appreciate the fact you do this, but I can't imagine how much pressure that puts on you. It probably feels like you're...suffocating or drowning half the time. I just want you to know I'm grateful you're there to patch up any cracks, and I'm always here for you if you feel like the burden is getting too heavy to hold by yourself. You'll always be my little brother and Dean's, too. We won't ever forget you because we're family." Roman paused. It was time to seal the deal... "And you know what? If we ever want to dissolve the Shield? We can do it on all of our own terms when we're ready. In a year or so, we could pursue singles careers? We'll talk about it and fine, done. When we're old and gray and we literally retire as a faction? Hell yeah! I'm up for that. We can and we will. We won't let anyone dictate anything for us."

Seth's eyes were suspiciously wet. "You really mean that, bro? You mean all of that?"

"Course I do, Seth."

Taking a shuddering sigh, Seth wrapped his arms around Roman in a big hug. "I love you, too, big brother. And I want you to remember no matter what happens tonight or what's said: I'll always be a hound. I might just get a little lost sometimes...Thanks Roman."

"Anytime," Roman said with a big smile.

Seth finally released Roman from his bear hug and glanced at the clock on the wall before he said, "we should probably head over if we don't wanna no show."

Roman smiled. "You go ahead. I'll met you over there. There's something I need to take care of before my match with Orton."

Nodding at Roman, Seth smiled his goofy lopsided grin. "You just want to fix your hair, don't you? Whatever, take as much time as you need. Big Dog, you're such a girl sometimes. But It's not like we'd start without you." Seth clapped Roman on the shoulder before leaving the locker room.

Roman sighed; for some reason, he almost felt guilty. It felt as if he manipulated Seth by addressing all the insecurities the man had confessed to him in an alternate time stream. It almost felt like cheating. But then again, he was using the ultimate cheat code with Marty's watch to change time in the first place. He shouldn't feel guilty if what he did actually had an impact and fixed their relationship. Roman had a feeling what he said really made an impact with Seth, and he really hoped this talk would do the trick and fix everything.

But Roman had a good feeling about this. Seth reacted perfectly to the talk. Roman took what had went awry from his first attempt at fixing the past, and he learned from it. He knew this plan was foolproof. He grinned, looking forward to having his brothers by his side in the future, in his present.

Roman pulled out the pocket watch and considered traveling forward, but he decided against it. He didn't want any surprises in the future if Seth still went through with the betrayal.

He went over to the monitor set up in the corner of the room for the Superstars' convenience. He turned it on to watch what transpired out in the ring. He was confident, yes, but he also wanted to see what he had accomplished.

The monitor turned on and showed Seth in the middle of his part of the promo. "And the reason Evolution perished was because even though they are three of the greatest superstars in the history of this industry, last night they were not one like the Shield. In the end, they were just three strangers that just happened to be standing on the same side of the ring," Seth said, finishing his part of the promo, and Roman's past self began to talk.

"They weren't brothers," Roman's past self explained as he put a hand on Seth's shoulder. Seth broke his serious demeanor and actually smiled; the man clapped Roman's past self on the back and walked over to Dean to let Roman get a chance to address the crowd.

Roman's past self continued, "The men standing in this ring are brothers. This is evolution," Roman said as he held out an open hand before he closed it into a fist and said, "And this is the Shield. Randy Orton! Get your ass out here and let me break your jaw with this symbol of excellence."

Triple H and Orton confidently strode down to the ring as their ring music hit allowing them to make their entrance to a chorus of boos. The Game casually held his trusty sledgehammer close.

In the ring, Roman and Dean barely glanced when Seth slide out of the ring and grabbed some steel chairs from the tech guys. Watching in the locker room, Roman bit his lip nervously when he saw Seth grab two chairs. Did his talk with him do nothing to persuade the man? This was looking more and more like deja vu. Seth set the chairs on the floor of the ring and slide back in before standing next to his brothers.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, what I do better than anybody is adapt. Last night was Plan A; tonight - tonight is Plan B." Hunter paused before he smirked and said, "There's always a Plan B."

Dean and Roman took a couple steps forward, leaving Seth standing alone behind them.

Backstage Roman swallowed nervously. This situation looked way too familiar. He didn't understand; Seth seemed to react just how Roman had hoped during their talk earlier, so why was Seth reacting the same way? Roman had been so sure this would work. Why would Seth still betray him - them?

Seth grabbed one of the chairs and held it in his strong grip. He studied Roman's back hard, and after a moment he reached a hand out and touched Roman's shoulder. When the Powerhouse turned to face him, Seth handed the chair over to him. Seth grabbed the other chair and held it out to Dean, who accepted the chair without a thought. The High Flyer stood next to his brothers empty handed, and the three Hounds of Justice stepped forward, together, ready to intercept any attack from Orton and Triple H.

Just from watching the scene on the monitor, Roman could see the gears working in Triple H's head. The Cerebral Assassin hadn't figured out Seth had backed out on his deal yet. It seemed like he still thought Seth was going to attack Roman's younger self and Dean at any moment.

Roman and Dean began climbing out on the opposite sides of the ring; Triple H and Orton eyed the two Shield members, suspiciously as the two men paused holding the chairs. The remaining members of Evolution were too busy watching Roman and Dean advance toward them to watch Seth. They thought Seth was on their side, so they didn't give Seth another glance. They didn't even notice as Seth ran, bounced off the back rope, and performed a suicide dive over the ropes onto them; the move knocked them down like a hand crashing through a house of cards.

The past Roman pulled Seth to his feet and clapped him on the back while Dean began an assault on Triple H with his chair. Seth threw a lopsided grin at Roman and gestured for the Powerhouse to get a couple hits of his own in. Roman targeted Orton as Dean gave Triple H a parting kick.

The Lunatic Fringe slouched over to Seth and asked him something the microphones couldn't pick up.

Back in the locker room, Roman frowned as he tried to figure out what Dean was saying. Seth mirrored the expression with a frown of his own. He began to respond to Dean with animated hand gestures and more words the microphones couldn't pick up. In the midst of their animated discussion, neither of them were paying attention to Triple H, who had now come to and was finally understanding that Seth hadn't fulfilled his part of the bargain.

As it would turn out, Roman's past self wasn't paying attention either, he was still occupied with Orton. As a result, when Triple H staggered to his feet with his sledgehammer in hand, he had a clear path to Seth and Dean. He lifted his trusty sledgehammer high into the air and used it to smack Dean in the head and Seth in the abdomen. Dean dropped, completely dazed by the blow. Triple H took advantage of Seth being doubled over with pain and grabbed the high flyer by the hair.

Dean was trying to focus his blurry vision on the scene. He saw Roman and the cream puff, Orton, trading blows before he focused his eyes on Seth and Triple H. He frowned when he heard what the Game was saying.

Watching on the monitor, Roman couldn't hear the things Triple H snarled out at Seth, not until Triple H started screaming at Seth.

"You actually think this will solve anything! I thought you were the Architect! I thought you were smarter than this!" Triple H drew back the hand that wasn't forcing Seth's head to stay still and punched the high flyer.

"You think you were the only backup! I always have a Plan B, Rollins! There's a contingency for screw ups like you!" Triple H tossed Seth against the barricade. "I don't know why you suddenly developed a conscience, but you'll regret it." Triple H paused before he glanced back at Dean, who was still crumpled up from where the sledgehammer blow left him. Something about Dean's horrified expression caused Triple H to smirk. He lifted his sledgehammer into the air again. "You think not turning on your _brothers_ tonight will solve anything? They can't trust the scumbag who was going to sell them out for the chance at a title. You'll be dead to them. YOU'LL BE DEAD TO THEM! AND I WILL-"

The rest of Triple H's threat was cut off by Roman's past self spearing him through the barricade, and the sledgehammer went flying across the floor. Dean carefully found his footing and hesitantly walked over to where his brothers were.

In the locker room, Roman breathed a big sigh of relief as he saw his younger self pull Seth and Dean into a hug. With his brothers close to him, his younger self's face held a benevolent expression, and he looked content to have his little brothers safe and whole. It was a happy ending… but there was always more to the story especially in WWE, if not life.

Every shot has a flipside.

Roman had no way of realizing it, but if he were to see his brothers' faces, the ending would be transformed from the happy, Disney-esque one into the beginnings of something much, much darker. Seth's face was contorted in worry. His teeth bit down on his lower lip and his eyes were distant as his mind worked through scenario after scenario about what might happen to him and his brothers now. Dean's expression was also contorted: mouth drawn into a frown and his eyebrows furrowed. His eyes clouded with rage. Dean's hand resting on Roman's back would twitch as though Dean was actively suppressing the urge to strangle someone. But both Romans, past and future, were oblivious to their reactions; he had no idea of the storm that was brewing between his two little brothers.

Roman smiled at the image of his past self hugging his brothers, taking in the scene as it was presented to him and not delving any further into it. He pulled out the pocket watch; his fingers grazed over the rough scratches on the back. He flipped open the cover and eyed the dark red flakes still dwelling in the crevices along the face of the watch. Sure, there were scars from the trips, but they were all going to be worth it in the end. All of Roman's actions would be worth it when he returned to the present and found the world as it should be, his brothers by his side and all of them on top of the world; it would be worth it.

Roman spun the dials forward easily and happily. With a content sigh, he closed his eyes, while listening to JBL, Lawler, and Cole discuss the night's events. "The Shield once again beat Evolution, and they will continue to do so as long as they are together; they are unstoppable. But this is the only the beginnings of a much bigger war. But for tonight, that's our show. Good night, everybody!"


	7. Chapter 6: ROMAN! ROMAN!

Monster chapter! This one was super hard to write for so many reasons. Hope you enjoy it. :D

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Chapter Six: ROMAN! ROMAN!

 _November 2, 2015 4:05 P.M._

"Good, good, I'm glad we're on the same page _for once_. Now you need to find Reigns and tell him that-" A woman's voice was monologuing before she was interrupted by an eager-to-please man with a Southern accent.

"Oh, he's right over there!"

Roman opened his eyes and peered around him, seeing his duffle bag next to him only vaguely recognizing the generic hallway he was standing in. Where was he? When was he? He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs. Denver, he was in Denver...

"Did you seriously just interrupt me? I can't believe you just interrupted me! Were you raised in a barn or something? I can't imagine why you'd..."

Roman couldn't help but make a face when the woman continued to insult the man, repeatedly. She was so rude. Roman glanced behind him to see a pretty, copper-haired woman berating Jamie Noble.

"Just never mind. I don't know why I bother talking to you," she snapped at Noble before sighing dramatically. "Why is it so difficult to have competent help these days? Now get out of here, Noble. I don't feel like dealing with your bumpkin incompetence right now."

Roman frowned. This woman was very familiar. Where did he know her from?

Wait... if she were to speak in a respectful and pleasant manner instead of an angry lit, if she were to wear skinny jeans and a blazer over a wrestling T-shirt instead of a business suit and heels, if she were to smile instead of scoff...It was Marie; the nice lady from the marketing side of WWE who gave Dean snacks if he asked nicely. What the hell happened to her to make her so incredibly unpleasant?

"Reigns!" Marie snarled, venomously.

Roman actually flinched. Was it necessary to shout at him when he was only a couple of feet down the hallway? "Yes?"

"What the heck are you doing here? I thought you were assembling your team for your match tonight! God, why do I bother with you? You're completely useless. When they offered me the job to manage you and make sure you don't sound like the biggest idiot in the world, I should have said 'No!' You know why? Because it's a hopeless task! You are hopeless! I'm stuck running around backstage, trying to find you, only to realize you didn't do anything I asked! You just waste all my time!"

Roman took a calming breath. "Sorry, I got sidetracked. I didn't mean to keep you waiting. I value your time and appreciate all you do."

Marie stared at Roman in disbelief. " _What_?"

"I'm sorry. I should have been more considerate of your time."

Marie narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Roman. "I don't know what you're on, but I'm not buying it, Reigns."

Roman looked at her in disbelief. What was this lady's deal?

Marie rolled her eyes. "Jeez, close your mouth, you'll catch flies; that stupefied expression only serves to make you look dumber too- if that's even possible. Now, we need to talk about tonight."

Roman gritted his teeth. How on earth could he deal with this lady on a day-to-day basis? "Fine. What about tonight?"

"Now I already approached Ryback, Bryan, and your Uso cousins. Everyone but Bryan agreed to be on your team; I guess the goat man is too busy with his Intercontinental Title defense to give us the time of day. But you know what? Not a big deal. We don't need him out there. I mean, he'd quell some of the heat you garner, but it's fine. It'll be good for you to actually do something good out there and get some cheers for once instead of boos," Marie said, checking off the points on a list she made on her phone.

Roman made a face. "I'm sure it's not all _my_ fault. You are managing me, so I'm sure you're partially responsible for my crowd reception."

Marie shot him a death glare. "If you didn't suck so much, they would cheer for you. It's not my fault you're a hopeless cause!" Marie sighed and seemed to contemplate why she put up with Roman before she continued, "So then I asked that foreign bloke, and I think the language barrier was too much because he would just ramble on and on. I have no freaking clue what he was saying-"

"What foreign guy?"

Marie rolled her eyes. "Cesaro, of course. Reigns, you disappoint me. But I just told him be out there and he agreed. So you have yourself a Team Reigns, congrats. I did all the work as usual."

Roman fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Thanks, I appreciate it. Sorry you had to go through all the hassle."

"Why are you being so polite and respectful, Reigns? You're not a nice guy; you're a prick. So stop thanking me and apologizing. Coming from you, it just sounds so insincere."

Roman frowned. "I'm a prick? What's that supposed to mean? Wait, nevermind, I don't wanna know. One question though, what about Dean and Seth? Why don't I have them on my team?"

Marie's mouth dropped open and she stared at Roman for a moment in complete disbelief. "What is wrong with you, Reigns? Are you that much of an asshole?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Those brothers of yours? They haven't been around here for about a year! You quit on them when they needed you the most." Marie shook her head in disbelief at Roman's callousness. "You quit on them! And they imploded as a result of your negligence!"

"What do you mean 'they imploded'? What does that even mean?" Roman could barely keep himself from shouting, trying to calm his concern for his brothers.

"Ask yourself that, you asshole. It's your fault!" Marie looked like she was about to burst into tears. As someone who had befriended the other two Shield members when she first started at the WWE, she always hated how horribly Reigns treated them. Now Reigns bringing up Dean and Seth as if he cared only made her hate the man even more. "Those two worked for so long to get where they were. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for them! And to repay them like you did! You disgust me." She turned to stomp away.

Roman grabbed her wrist. "Tell me where they are! I want to talk to them!"

"I'm not telling you that! I can't believe you! Seeing you will just make things worse for them! You didn't deserve them, Reigns! You took them for granted!" Marie drew up to her full height and pointed a finger in Roman's face as she shoved Roman back, and he released her wrist. "I've had it with you and your bullshit! You don't get to waltz in here and change your tune, suddenly treating me like a human being! And suddenly caring about Seth and Dean? No, Reigns! No! I quit!" Marie turned and stomped away never looking back at Roman.

Roman put his head in his hands. What the hell happened? He thought he fixed everything...

"You know, if you really wanted to apologize to him, I could give you Mr. Rollins' address." Jamie Noble's Southern twang jolted Roman back to reality.

Roman turned and looked at the former wrestler. "You have it?"

"Course, I do. Seth has a lot of friends here still. Any of the guys from the Indie circuit have a lot of respect for the guy. I know, I do. I just wish he'd agree to help work in developmental," Jamie nearly mumbled the last sentence as an afterthought. "Just don't cause any trouble for the guy. He doesn't need to deal with any of that. He already has too much stuff to deal with on his own without you adding anything."

"What about Dean? Do you know where he is?"

Jamie Noble looked fairly uncomfortable with the question. "I don't keep up with him." The former wrestler finished scribbling down Seth's address and handed it over to Roman.

Roman nodded, gratefully. "Thanks, I appreciate this, Noble." Roman pulled out his phone and was already calling the Denver airport to procure a ticket to Iowa.

Noble called after him as Reigns practically sprinted down the hallway, "And I mean it, Roman. If you hurt that kid, you'll regret it. He doesn't need any more trouble."

Roman waved off Noble's suggestion, continuing to run out of the building while also successfully purchasing a one-way ticket to Davenport, Iowa that took off in just an hour. Perfect.

"Roman! Where do you think you're going? You haven't had your match yet! The locker room is the other way!" One of the producers asked, frantically while running to keep up with the determined Samoan.

"I'm leaving. I have a family emergency," Roman said without breaking his stride.

"What? Wait, what! No, no, no! You can't leave! It's Team Reigns versus Team Owens! How can we do tonight's main event without Reigns?"

Roman shrugged, and he pointed at someone who was walking by. "There you go; that's your guy. Have it be Team Ryder versus Team Owens."

Zack Ryder looked up from his phone in surprise and confusion. "What?"

The producer thought for a moment before grabbing Zack's arm and pulling him away. "You're leading a team in a traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 match against Team Owens, congratulations."

Roman heard a distant "Woo Woo Woo!" and couldn't help but smile.

During the flight to Davenport, Roman mulled over the Seth situation. What could have driven his brother so far away from the company and the job he lived for? It was no secret Seth's dream job had always been to work in the WWE, so why would the high flyer leave? And what about Dean? True, Dean had a tendency to drive people away from him, so maybe that's why Noble hadn't been able to tell Roman anything about him. Roman's frown only grew deeper just thinking the worst about his two younger brothers. Everything was supposed to be better here, not worse...

The flight and the subsequent drive outside the city went by quickly, and soon enough Roman found himself driving deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere, Iowa. The sight of frozen cornfields and shivering cows began to depress him a bit. He wondered why Seth would chose to move out here of all places. "Fuckin' Iowa," Roman couldn't help but mutter to himself annoyed by the desolate and barren landscape.

When his phone finally informed him that he had reached his destination, Roman frowned in confusion at the old farmhouse before him. Off to the right, he could see a barn with peeling white paint and a large pasture behind it. There was no way this could be the right place. Had Noble lead him on a wild goose chase? Maybe Noble secretly hated his guts in this reality, so he had decided to mess with him. But Roman had come this far, so he might as well knock on the door.

Roman tentatively got out of the car, groaning when he stretched his limbs. He hated how all the time travel made him feel. Ever since his first jump back into time, he had a faint headache and felt slightly nauseous with his stomach twisting and churning. He made his way to a slightly off-kilter screen door and knocked. Waiting a few minutes, he repeated the process to no result. Roman sighed before his gaze drew back to the barn. What time was it anyway? Seven something? Eight something? Still early in the evening enough for a farmer to still be up and working in the barn, right? Roman really knew nothing about farms, so he was going out on a limb here.

Roman headed over to the shabby structure and casually walked in. About two dozen cows turned their heads towards him in a quizzical fashion. The one closest to him mooed very loudly in what seemed like a greeting. Roman began to wander down the center aisle of the barn looking for another human person. Was he just wasting his time now?

Halfway down the barn, Roman heard a little growl followed by a yipping bark, and a little Yorkie came rushing out from where it had been sleeping by a relaxing cow.

"Shhh, little guy, stop barking at me" Roman chided, trying to get the dog to calm down.

The Yorkie wasn't having it though and continued to yap.

"Kevin?" A familiar voice called and a sharp whistle filled the air.

Kevin jerked to attention and speed off to where Seth's voice originated. Roman followed the dog to a segregated stall. Inside the stall stood a large cow, who was currently getting a belly rub from the Seth Rollins.

"Shh, it's okay, Mary Sue. I know you're probably sore, but that's normal. You're carrying a baby calf, and man, are they heavy. But don't worry, girl; give it a couple days, and you'll be a mom," Seth muttered to the apparently-pregnant cow as he rubbed soothing circles onto her side. He was wearing a pair of faded skinny jeans, a battered pair of work boots, and an old Chicago Bears T-shirt since it was quite a bit warmer in the barn than outside. Seth seemed to just notice Roman was there and stared at Roman in disbelief as though it was the most unfathomable thing for the Samoan to be there .

Roman's mouth dropped open in surprise when he saw Seth. This wasn't the Seth he remembered. This Seth was skinny; like he only had muscles that came naturally from farm work and not from doing his Crossfit training. This Seth wore a pair of glasses that hung precariously on the tip of his nose and looked like they were trying to escape from his face. This Seth looked tired and almost lonely; his eyes were dim, like someone had stolen his reason to continue to get up in the morning and was only here as the result of being on autopilot, not from any personal desire or drive.

"Seth, what the hell happened to your hair?" Roman couldn't help himself from exclaiming. Well, that certainly wasn't the best place to start.

Seth frowned at him and self-consciously ran a hand through his hair - hair which probably only measured a couple of inches long at most. "What about it?"

"It's-it's short. I've never seen you with short hair!"

Seth shrugged like he couldn't be bothered to give a damn about something so trivial. "I cut it this length 'bout a year ago. Long hair isn't practical for the farm."

Roman opened his mouth to begin a tirade of questions to try to figure out why Seth freaking Rollins was working on his own dairy farm in the middle of Bumfuck, Iowa - population of 20 (this included both Seth and his cows). However, before he could ask the former Architect of the Shield any of questions, Seth gave Mary Sue a parting pat on the shoulder and limped over to the wall, where a chestnut brown cane was leaning. Seth grimaced and rubbed his knee before he heavily leaned on the cane and made his way down the center aisle in the barn.

A couple of things dawned on Roman. Seth couldn't walk more than a couple steps without his cane. If he couldn't walk without a cane, he couldn't wrestle, at least not how he was known for. His high-risk, high flying style would not be compatible at all with this physical disability. Wrestling meant so much to the former high flyer, so he probably wanted to disappear off the face of the world once he knew he couldn't compete anymore. That way he wouldn't be bothered with any crazy, wrestling fans or the people that just were obsessed with witnessing others' misfortunes.

Roman knew this injury was connected with him and Dean somehow… But how?

"What the hell are you doing here, Roman? I don't remember inviting you. Shouldn't you be in Denver on RAW tonight?" There was something very bitter and biting with the way Seth practically spat out the last question. It was almost as though Seth couldn't care less about RAW and the WWE.

But yet, he knew what city the company was supposed to be in tonight…

Seth carefully navigated to the end of the barn and stopped three cows down from the barn door where a black and white Holstein was carefully chewing her cud. He leaned his cane against the chain fence that kept the cows from meandering around the entirety of the barn and carefully sunk down until he was sitting on an overturned bucket that was in the empty stall next to the cow, so he could pet her.

Roman trailed closely behind him. "I should've called before I came. Sorry, that was inconsiderate of me," he muttered.

Seth turned and stared up at Roman as though the Samoan had suddenly announced his greatest dream was to rebrand himself as Doink the Clown. "You should have called? With what? My number which you don't have? That's rich. What's gotten into you, Roman?" Seth turned back to the cow. "What's wrong with Roman? Huh, Leonardo? Did the big, bad ass Samoan smack his head in the last year and remember he had a moral compass? Did he suddenly remember I was alive?"

"Are you talking to a cow?" Roman asked, feeling very concerned for Seth's mental stability.

Seth sighed and leaned his head on the cow's neck while refusing to speak towards Roman. "I don't know how to deal with you right now. You went for so long, ignoring my existence because it wasn't convenient for you and now...now you just show up unannounced. Now you want to acknowledge me? For what? Are you suddenly going to spout some Samoan aphorism about how we're blood brothers or some other bullshit? I don't get you, Roman. I thought I knew where I stood, but apparently, I was wrong."

"I don't know what to say, Seth, other than I'm an asshole. I know I can't take anything back but...I'd like to try and fix our relationship," Roman said, nervously. He had no idea what he did in this timeline, but it looked like he didn't do himself any favors in Seth's eyes.

Seth sighed. "Okay, I better not regret this, Roman. I just...I can't deal with any of that shit." The cow seemed to sense Seth was upset and reached a large tongue out to lick a long tail up Seth's cheek to his hair, resulting in the chunk of short hair standing up on end. He smiled and carefully stood, leaning on the fence before he grabbed his cane. "I'm guessing you don't have a place to stay? I'm not counting your rental car since you'd freeze and I'd be stuck shipping your frozen carcass back to those idiots at World Wrestling Entertainment..."

Roman shook his head. "Nah, you don't exactly live close to civilization."

Seth raised an eyebrow in annoyance. He stood up and began to walk towards the barn door. He grabbed the Chicago Bears sweatshirt from where it was hanging on the barn doors and slipped it on. "I know, that's what I like about this. It's quiet with no stupid people around here. Well, up until tonight…"

Roman snorted in amusement. "Are you offering me a place to stay?"

Seth sighed. "I guess. I have a spare room for when Bryan and Brie visit. You can sleep there." He began walking to Roman's rental with the Samoan following.

Roman asked as they walked toward the farmhouse, "Daniel Bryan visits you?" Why did he have the weirdest mental image of the small bearded man and Seth meditating in the middle of a cow pasture with all the cows slowly walking in a circle around them, mooing up a chorus of sounds that guided their deep breathing?

"Course, he does. We're still pretty close. I mean, I've known the dude since RIng of Honor… Once in awhile he'll come here and stay. He loves the cows. I think he wants to own his own farm someday once he's done wrestling."

Roman frowned. Why did Roman feel a weird twinge at the thought of the leader of the _Yes!_ movement spending all this time with _his little brother_? "I bet Brie hates it here."

Seth snorted. "You'd think so, but you'd be wrong. She's pretty cool actually. She even helped me bottle feed the calves a couple of times."

"Oh..." Roman's stomach churned uncomfortably. He wasn't jealous. He wasn't jealous...

"But they haven't been by for a while. I guess work is keeping them busy," Seth almost muttered the last bit, and he sounded dejected. Not to mention the very present note of bitterness which seemed to permanently dwell in his voice.

"Yeah, Bryan has a title right now, so I bet it's hard to get away."

Seth almost flinched at the mention of the title. "I bet." He waited for Roman to get his duffle bag out of the rental before he led the Samoan to the old farmhouse. Quickly, they entered the old house and he showed Roman the spare room telling him where to find the bathroom.

"Well, I guess this is good night then… I need to get up early for milking in the morning, so I guess I'll see you after that…"

"Thanks Seth, goodnight." Roman said graciously.

Seth wrinkled his nose, and Roman couldn't exactly read the expression. "Night." He began limping toward the door.

"Wait, Seth."

Roman hesitated when Seth paused and looked at him with worn and tired eyes. "Yeah?"

Why was it so hard to find words? "Can you... walk me through what happened the night... where that happened?" Roman gestured to Seth's leg.

Seth frowned at Roman. "Weren't you there? Shouldn't you know?"

Shit, shouldn't he know? Should he lie? Yes, he should lie. It would be better than telling Seth he had been time traveling and alternatively changing things in the time stream, and he inadvertently caused Seth's leg injury... Yeah, he should lie.

Roman sighed. "I was there but I don't know if you remember, I took a pretty big bump that night, and it's really fuzzy… I honestly don't remember anything about that night."

Seth's frown deepened and he furrowed his brow. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Roman shrugged and carefully sat down on the bed, so he was facing Seth. "You had more than enough on your plate, and I didn't want to get sidelined. It was stupid on my part."

Seth ran a hand through his short hair and tugged on it. "That is very stupid. You must've had a pretty serious concussion if you have memory loss."

"It was dumb. I won't downplay it."

Seth sighed, and he made his way to Roman's bed, sitting down on it to stretch out his leg. "You don't remember _anything_ at all?"

Roman shook his head. "I can't even tell you who we were facing that night."

Seth laughed. It was something low and bitter - something dry and empty, like an old leaf disintegrating at any contact because there's nothing to hold it together anymore; it was without a sturdy and trustworthy foundation. "There wasn't a _we_ really. You were there, but you weren't in the match with us. You were in a match earlier that night. It was just Dean and me in a ladder match against the Usos for the Tag Team Championship. It was a friendly match. The Usos and us got along ever since we ditched the Authority and helped them and Bryan out. But things turned ugly…"

Roman frowned in confusion. Was it an ambush by some of the Authority goons? Did Triple H finally get his way and end the Shield once and for all? Maybe it was a Wyatt attack. Those backwoods assholes always had something against them.

Seth sighed. "I guess I should've seen it coming. I knew something was off about Dean starting after Payback. He was more unhinged than ever before. The way he'd look at me...it was unsettling. It was like he was trying to figure out the best way to hide my body after he murdered me. But he didn't act on it. At least, he didn't until that match…"

Roman stared at Seth in disbelief. Why would Dean target Seth if he hadn't betrayed them?

Seth was quiet for a while as he fixedly stared at his leg, trying to find the willpower to continue on with the story. It was still painful to think about. "Like I said before, it was a ladder match. Not a big deal. We've done those before. We were so close to winning, too. I was on the top of the ladder, just about to grab the belts for us. I guess in hindsight, I should've played it safe and stood two or three rungs below, but I was cocky because the Usos were out of it after a big bump. I wasn't afraid of the ladder being tipped over. Dean was standing at the base of the ladder, making sure we weren't attacked if the Usos shook off the bump and charged the ring. I remember he had set up the ladder too far over to the side, so I really had to lean over to grab the titles. And that's what I was doing; I was so close. But then the next thing I knew, I was going sideways, falling out of the air. The ladder went right over the ropes since it was so far over, and I landed on another ladder that Jimmy tossed out the ring earlier."

Roman stared at Seth horrified. How had he missed this? How had he messed up things this badly. But Seth wasn't done talking.

"I guess I was pretty concussed, and my leg was worse. I couldn't move because it hurt so much… But Dean, he wasn't done. I didn't even realize it was him at first that tipped the ladder. I thought it was one of the Usos or maybe I leaned too far over or something; I never thought it was Dean… So when he got out of the ring, I thought he was checking up on me to make sure I was okay, but he wasn't. He started...Well, you get the picture. Then later, the surgery didn't go well on my knee. When they told me I would always have a limp, I retired. I can't wrestle if one of my legs can't even support my full weight…" Seth stared at his knee, still reliving the horror of that night. He seemed to snap out of it. "Night Roman." Seth sighed as he slowly stood up, grabbing his cane.

"Wait, Seth. Didn't I...Didn't I try to help you?" Roman almost sounded like he was pleading with Seth to tell him what he needed to hear.

Seth shook his head. "No, you stayed backstage the entire time...I woke up alone in the hospital. No calls, no nothing. Not a word from you. I just thought…" Seth shook his head as if he was shaking away long forgotten thoughts. "Good night, Roman. I'll see you in the morning."

Roman was quiet until Seth reached the door before he said quietly, "Good night, little brother." He was still reeling from what he was just told.

Seth shook his head and looked back at Roman in surprise before he shut the door.

Roman spent the majority of the night staring at the cracks in the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. How had things gone so horribly wrong? The only explanation that made sense to Roman was Triple H managed to get into Dean's head and plant seeds of doubt about Seth.

Maybe the situation was still salvageable.

Roman awoke to the sound of pans clanking distantly. He yawned and checked the time on his phone to see that it was just after 10 AM. After showering and changing, he made his way to Seth's kitchen.

"I hope you still like pancakes because that's what I feel like eating, and I'm not changing the menu for you." While Seth's words might have been construed as rude, they carried no real bite behind them. They almost seemed playful, which was a good sign to Roman.

"I still like pancakes, especially the ones you make," Roman said, grinning. Seth was famous for his delectable home-made from scratch pancakes. They were the perfect cross of healthy ingredients with the taste of a guilty pleasure.

"Well, get ready for disappointment because I'm just making the ones from the box."

Oh, that was a disappointment. Roman knew it was stupid, but he really wanted Seth's homemade pancakes. It had been so long since he had last had them - a year and a half, approximately. "I'm sure those are good, too," he said diplomatically.

Roman helped Seth set the table while he asked the former high flyer questions about farm life. Finally, when they were both sitting and done eating breakfast, Roman knew he couldn't avoid the subject any longer. "So Seth, what happened to Dean?"

Seth's posture became rigid. "He's staying in a mental hospital for the time being."

"You had him committed?" Roman asked; he was caught between horrified and stunned. Sure, Dean had hurt Seth, but to have him strapped into a straightjacket and stuffed in a padded cell? That was taking it too far. Seth knew very well that was Dean's worst fear. How could he do that to him?

"What? No? What era do you think we live in? You don't commit people anymore," Seth glared at Roman like he was the dumbest person he'd ever met. "No, he's not dealing with people in...positive ways, so he's learning to cope with negative emotions. It's a nice place."

"'It's a nice place?' What you've been there before? You've actually been there to visit him?" Roman asked dubiously. If Seth hated Dean as much as Roman thought he did, there was no chance in hell he would visit Dean in a mental hospital.

Seth was quiet for a moment before he softly said in a voice that was evident he was forcing himself to sound calm, "Roman, I'm the one that researched for the best quality care possible for someone in Dean's condition. I made sure the place was nice: inside and out. I even interviewed the doctors and caregivers to be sure. I made sure the place would be a good fit for him."

Roman was stunned for the second time that morning. "You found the place? Do you actually go visit him…?"

Seth sighed and replied, annoyed, "Yeah, I go at least once a month. It's a longer drive, so I can only go if I get someone to look after the farm for the day."

"Can you give me the address?"

Seth ran a hand through his hair. "Sure, visiting hours run 4-6 Tuesday nights. Go grab your crap because you'll have to leave right away to make the visiting hours since it's a long drive."

Roman nodded and he retrieved his duffle bag from the guest room. He wandered back into the kitchen to see Seth scribbling down the address from his phone onto a piece of scrap paper as together as they walked out to the front porch. He looked up and handed it to Roman. "You'll have to go now if you want to make it in time."

Roman typed the address into his map app on his phone. "So when you visit, you actually see him? You talk to him? You don't just go and pay the bills or something?"

Seth angrily glared at Roman. "Roman, why do you think I hate him? What he did wasn't his fault. I mean, I still resent he felt he needed to do what he did, and it's awful to know I'll never be able to do what I loved ever again. I'm always going to be a broken, fragmented version of what I was before. But you know what? It wasn't Dean's fault! If we want to be honest here, Dean's just as broken as me; the only difference is I can hide what's in my head, and he can't."

Roman stared at Seth. He opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by the Architect. Seth spat, bitterly, "If you really wanna point fingers, point at yourself, Roman. Please, leave. Go visit, Dean. Pay your penance. Go pretend you care about us for your oh-so-generous one day out of the entire fucking year. Just get the hell out of my house."

Roman heard the screen door slam behind him and he stood, numb on the front porch at a loss as to what had just happened. He sighed and walked to his car to begin his drive to see Dean.

What did Seth mean Dean was just as broken as Seth was? Seth wasn't broken, was he? He wasn't wrestling, but he still had a life… Or did he? He had the cows along with Brie and Bryan. But they apparently only visited once in awhile, and Seth knew that. Had his brother purposely drawn them into his life because he knew they couldn't really be there with such hectic schedules? Then, he would appear to still have friends but would really only have superficial ones? He was obviously bitter over what had happened. But did that make him broken? Physically, maybe but spiritually? Roman sighed. Seth hadn't laughed once during Roman's visit. His eyes were dull, full of retreat, regret.

Maybe they all went a little crazy after that night. Dean went ballistic on Seth, hurting him so permanently and apparently maliciously. Seth cut himself off from everyone, only accepting people who couldn't be there for the long haul into his life. And Roman, himself...well, he was traveling back and forth through time, trying to fix his mistakes and make the time stream a better place. And what was the definition of insanity, he couldn't help but ask himself. Wasn't it doing something over and over and expecting different results yet getting the same?

No, this was different. He would succeed, and they would be brothers then, now and forever.

After he arrived at the address, Roman carefully walked into the mental hospital and he glanced around at the cheery wall colors and friendly-looking staff members. He walked up to the front desk.

"I'm here to visit Dean Ambrose?" Roman asked, hesitantly. He wasn't entirely sure if he was in the right place.

The nurse behind the desk looked up at him and smiled. "Oh, you're not Seth. What a nice surprise that Dean has a new visitor. Sign the visitor form in front of you."

Roman quickly scrawled his name.

"Perfect! Come on, I'll show you to the family room. Just to run through the rules: Don't give him anything. Don't make any physical contact with him. Signal one of the Orderlies if his behavior concerns you."

Roman followed the lady through a long, generic hall into a spacious room with light blue walls and many windows. The nurse's pager beeped and she checked it. "Sorry, I'd go introduce you, but I need to run. He's right over there. Enjoy your visit." She pointed to the corner where a hunched-over figure sat in a chair.

Roman felt nervous as he walked to the corner. Before he reached it, someone stepped in front of him. He looked down and saw a little girl, probably no older than seven or eight years-old. With a quick glance back at Dean, she looked up at Roman with warm brown eyes; they seemed to glow with a gold light. "A word to the wise. You must not gaze. I do not think they told you. He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he becomes the monster, himself. If you gaze too long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze back into you." She smiled at Roman; she flipped her wavy brown hair over her shoulder and stepped around him, disappearing through the door.

What the hell was that all about? And why did that little girl seem so familiar? Roman was almost positive he had seen her before. Roman took a deep breath and closed the distance to Dean. "Dean? Little brother? Do you care if I sit by you and talk for a bit?"

"Uce? Is that you?" Dean asked without looking up from where he was fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt.

"Yeah, Dean, it's me." Roman smiled, happy that Dean seemed to welcome him.

"Sit down, brother!"

Roman sat down across from Dean. "Hey, man, how are you doing?"

Dean looked up at Roman finally. His eyes weren't the typical, Dean Ambrose eyes with the mischievous glint and the conspiratorial twinkle. No, his eyes were glassy and almost unfocused, like they could barely keep up with all the drugs they had pumping through his body. "Haven't seen you for a long time, my brother. Thought you died."

Roman's eyes widened. "Me died? What? No, I was just caught up with something...Sorry I haven't been around, Dean."

Dean tilted his head and looked right through Roman. "It's weird. You don't come here anymore, not since the last time..."

"What time was that?" Wait, he had visited Dean before?

"Remember when I almost solved your problem for you? You were so proud of me. I did good." Dean grinned up at the wall above Roman's shoulder. "I did real good."

Roman had a really awful feeling about where Dean was going with this. "I don't really-"

"I squashed him. He tried to betray you and me, so I pushed him. He's not flying anymore. You were proud of me. You told me I did good for you cause that's what brothers do for each other."

Horror filled Roman. How could he possibly tell Dean it was okay for him to hurt Seth? "When did I tell you that?"

Dean waved his fingers as he counted. "Two, three visits after I came here? You came right after the scumbag left. You told me you were glad I got rid of someone who wanted to cause the Shield to implode. You heard what Trips said just like I did. Seth sold us out. Never trust a man who'd stab you in the back. He was a little cancer..." Dean laughed to himself.

Roman stared at Dean. There was no way he'd ever think that, right? Dean was out of his mind; he was sick and needed help, but there was no way Roman would share those opinions... _Right_? Roman reached into his pocket and held the watch carefully; it was beginning to look like he'd need to go back and try again… "Dean, I don't know what I said in the past, but listen to me now. Seth's our brother. No matter what he was considering doing, he's still family. And it's never okay to hurt family, you know that."

Dean's eyes suddenly shifted. One moment they were busy staring past Roman, and the next they were steady and focused on Roman's gaze. "You're taking his side."

"No, Dean, there are no sides." Roman's grip tightened on the pocket watch.

Dean was silent as he stared into Roman's eyes; Roman was startled to see pure rage in Dean's blue eyes. "I guess that's where you're wrong, big brother. There are sides. The lines were drawn a long time ago."

In an instant, Dean sprang across the space between them and grasped Roman's neck in his hands. His grip tightened as he began to strangle him. Roman's eyes widened as his hands flew up and grasped at Dean's, clawing in a pathetic desperation. His mouth gasped and gaped open, frantically searching for oxygen.

This was it. He was going to die at the hands of his own brother. Dean would continue to crush his throat and starve Roman's brain from oxygen. Dean would kill Roman, and that would be the end. All his efforts to reunite his brothers were pointless if he was going to die right then and there.

Roman was too distracted by Dean to notice the watch flinging somewhere off into the distance behind him.

"There are always sides, Roman! It was supposed to be you and me against the world! But you chose him! You always choose him!" Dean snarled as he tightened his grip on Roman's throat. "You always chose him!"

Despite the fact the incident seemed to take hours, only two minutes had passed, only two turns on the minute dial… The orderlies swarmed around them and carefully pulled Dean off Roman. They held down the Lunatic Fringe as one of the doctors prepared a needle as the other doctors pulled Dean off of Roman.

"ROMAN! THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT, ISN'T IT? YOU CHOSE HIM OVER ME!"

Trembling, Roman stood up, carefully, brushing off the questions and concerns from the orderlies. He began rushing to the door when he felt someone grab his arm. The girl with the big brown eyes held up something to Roman: the gold pocket watch. There was something very familiar about the image of her holding the watch. The girl and the watch seemed like they were old friends.

She smirked at the Samoan as he grabbed the watch from her. "Aunty Marty would be disappointed if you lost that." Before Roman could say anything, she ran off back towards Dean, laughing all the while.

Roman had to be insane for thinking it was possible, but he could swear that little girl was Marty. She had her eyes and seemed way too familiar with the watch… And if Marty could fluctuate between being a twenty-year-old and a woman in her sixties, who could say it wasn't possible for her to be younger...

Roman continued out of the room and stopped right outside. He opened the watch, his frown deepening when he noticed the dent on the cover. He quickly spun the dials and closed the cover. As he tried to calm his rapid heartbeat, he listened to the sounds of Dean struggling against the Orderlies screaming , and he closed his eyes.

"ROMAN! ROMAN!"


	8. Chapter 7: The Chairshot

This chapter was both super difficult and super entertaining to write. Entertaining because I might be a sadist when it comes to putting Roman in difficult situations. Difficult because Roman is frustrating to write. And halfway through, my fiancé replaced every single "Roman" with "Ramen"... That was a fun discovery... His shrewd advice was to change Dean's name to doughnut and get rid of Seth completely since he doesn't have a food name. Yup...Tempting

* * *

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Chairshot Heard Around the World

 _June 2, 2014 9:13 PM_

"Roman? ROMAN?"

Roman opened his eyes to see Dean standing in front of him in one of the Indianapolis arena hallways. Roman couldn't help himself; he flinched away when he saw Dean. He couldn't see past the mental image of a crazed Dean with furious eyes trying to kill him...

Dean looked at Roman: concerned and kind of confused."You okay, Rome? I came 'round the corner to see you standing there with your eyes closed. Everything alright?"

Roman mentally cursed himself; he needed to keep this moment separate from the alternate timestream. If he didn't, he would drive himself insane, but it was so difficult. That image of Dean was so potent. Shaking his head, Roman tried to eradicate his memory of Dean snarling and reaching for his throat to try and kill him from his head. That was a different Dean in a different time… Roman responded, "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just getting in the zone for the match tonight. It's all good, bro."

Dean just looked at him, the look of concern still very much present in his eyes. "You look rattled… Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

Dean nodded, slowly before he froze. "What happened to your neck, Rome?" He carefully ghosted his fingers over the spot where the other, the crazy Dean had grasped his throat and tried to choke him to death.

Roman couldn't help but flinch away from Dean's touch. It was too soon…"It's nothing, Dean. Just some bruises from Payback. No a big deal."

Dean frowned: offended and still very worried. "It's all red and looks like you're bruising... I don't remember you being put into a choke hold last night…"

Roman shrugged it off. "It's from right before Seth did his swan dive. Like I said, no big deal."

"If you're sure…" Dean repeated. He shrugged before muttering, "I guess I'll go prep for the match. See you by our mark." Dean gave Roman a weak smile before wandering off.

Roman slumped against the wall and took a deep breath. Logically, he knew Dean hadn't tried to kill him. It hadn't happened yet, and after he stopped himself from talking to Seth here, it never would. All he had to do was undo his actions. However, he also had to come up with some sort of game plan to try to fix everything. This entire task was beginning to seem more and more impossible. Maybe he had to address different issues when he talked to Seth...

But really, what was the point? Regardless of what he talked about with Seth, surely, whatever he did here would only make things worse… It seemed to be the trend here. Roman could never win. Maybe he would be better off just calling it and returning to his original timeline.

No, it was still worth trying. He owed it to his brothers. He owed it to himself. Didn't he deserve to be happy? And he was happy with two brothers by his side…Didn't he deserve to be happy?

Roman stood up and began to walk over to the Shield locker room to head his past self off. He turned the corner and saw the past Roman go to follow Seth into the locker room. Roman broke into a sprint and grabbed his past self by the back of the sweatshirt hood, preventing him from following Seth into the locker room.

His double spun around, ready to attack; however, he froze when he saw he was being held back by himself. After a moment of contemplation, the double asked his future self in disbelief and frustration, "It doesn't work?"

Roman shook his head. "It definitely didn't work. You'll thank me later for stopping you."

"How bad?"

Roman hesitated before he said, "Seth gets a career ending injury and has to retire, and Dean...goes insane."

The double winced. "More insane than normal?"

Roman nodded, remembering how his head rushed from the lack of oxygen and how Dean seemed to get off on hurting him. "Not the good kind of insane."

"Okay." Roman's double nodded. "Maybe we should stop then. It doesn't seem like anything is going to work. Maybe we're not meant to stop the chairshot. Maybe we're not meant to change the past."

"Stop the chairshot…" Roman muttered to himself, not paying attention to what the double had said. "Stop the chairshot?"

"What? You have a plan?"

"Stop the chairshot." Roman shook his head. "I feel like we're missing something fairly obvious here."

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I still don't get what keeps going wrong. It's like we're forgetting something. Like there's some variable we're overlooking..." The double rubbed his beard in contemplation.

Roman sighed. "It's alright. I'll think of something. It's just- stop the chairshot. Huh… " Roman frowned as he realized he was approaching everything terribly wrong.

The double frowned. "Why do you keep repeating that?"

Shaking his head, Roman fixed his gaze on the double. "I think I know what we have to do."

"What?" The double asked, hurriedly, knowing time was not on their side.

"We've been focusing on preventing the chairshot from ever happening. Right?"

"Right," the double repeated, slowly, unsure of where Roman was going with this.

"What if the key was to stop the chairshot, not prevent it from happening?" Roman asked with a sly yet sneaky grin as his lips twisted into a sick snarl.

The double stared at him. "I don't think that makes sense. If you stop it...Seth will have already tried to betray us, and doesn't that go against everything we're trying to do?"

"But he won't succeed."

"Yeah, but Dean will probably have issues with accepting him after he tried to blindside us with a steel chair. The Shield will still be cracked. We could never be what we were if you let the chairshot happen. We won't ever be whole."

Roman shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about. _I_ just want my brothers back. Maybe I should stop sweating the small details…"

"Are you saying," the double paused, unsure if he was interpreting the situation wrong. "What the hell are you saying?" The double's eyes were wide with disbelief.

"Maybe we're too focused on Seth liking us...We're too eager to be the nice guy in this situation. What have we learned so far? We've lost in every scenario so far! We can't win like this! We need to try something radical, and if that means, we won't come out the hero? That's fine with me."

The double stared at Roman. "I don't know about this…"

Roman looked at the double before he felt a smirk quirk at the ends of his lips. "Well, it's not like that really matters; does it?"

The double stared at Roman, almost nervously. He was talking to himself (his own counterpart) right now; he should trust him entirely, but why was he so apprehensive? Something about his counterpart was unnerving him; there was something ferial in his eyes, something desperate. "What do you mean by that?"

Roman shrugged. "I mean, suppose we made another paradox by having us both here at the same time? Remember what happened last time we did that?"

The double's eyes widened. "You have to help me! We can figure out a way around this together! Don't do this, Roman! You're better than this! I'm better this!"

"It's too late for that," Roman said, emotionlessly as he watched the double clutch his stomach and the exposed portions of his skin began to bubble and ripple.

His double fixed him with a betrayed look. He said in a raspy voice, "What happened to you?"

Roman looked at him, unimpressed. "My own brother tried to kill me. And I know what you're thinking; it wasn't Seth. No, it was Dean. You know, the brother that's been by my side this entire time. He tried to strangle me to death because I didn't chose him."

"That was another timeline! You can't blame him for what happened," the double said as he grasped at his abdomen harder trying to reason with himself.

"You're right. It was another timeline, but that doesn't make Dean any less capable of it." Roman shook his head.

The double began coughing, violently and clutching his chest. His body began to sag as his organs began to liquefy.

Roman glanced around the hallway, concerned someone would hear the commotion his double was making and would come to investigate. However, he didn't need to worry since the next time he glanced over at his double, he was already almost completely melted. A deep sigh escaped from Roman, and he hurried off towards where his counterpart in this timeline was hanging out and getting ready for tonight's match.

Just as Roman turned around the corner leaving the scene of the crime, Seth came out of the locker room, deciding to head over to their entrance mark a little early since he was practically climbing the walls over what he was about to do. He leaned against the wall next to the door and sighed. Seth frowned when he noticed the red tinged puddle on the ground. Shaking his head, he slipped his headphones on and shuddered slightly. For whatever reason, the mystery puddle really unsettled him.

Seth began walking towards the entrance mark with his eyes still focused on the puddle, and he bumped into a pretty woman with brown eyes and long wavy hair, almost knocking her over. He carefully caught her and righted her. "I'm so sorry, miss. I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going."

Marty smiled at Seth. "Don't worry about it, darling. I'm fine, right as rain. Good luck to you tonight, dear. Lord knows, y'all will need it."

Seth watched her walk away, confused. What the heck was _that_ supposed to mean? Then he noticed the puddle on the ground was completely gone. Seth shook his head and walked away. His pre-betrayal jitters were obviously getting to him...

A couple hallways over, the Roman of 2014 was happily listening to his Ipod while he scrolled through a blog post about healthy smoothies on his phone. He was completely in his own little world. Suddenly, he was grabbed by the front of his vest and heaved to his feet.

Whoever was attacking him was wearing a Shield hoodie sweatshirt with the hood pulled low over his face. However, when the attacker pulled his right fist back to coldcock him, Roman caught a glimpse of familiar gray eyes glaring at him.

"What the hell," Roman muttered before the fist made contact with his jaw as he lost consciousness.

Roman from the future caught his past self as he slumped. "Jeez, why am I so heavy?"

Wondering what he should do with his own unconscious body, Roman considered the fact he should have made a more conclusive plan before he bludgeoned himself in the head. He sighed and considered his options. He definitely needed to hide his past self somewhere but where? In the locker room? Under the ring? Wherever it was, he needed to make the decision quickly because he'd bet this would be impossible to talk his way out of if two of him showed up on TV. Vince would have a cow or would dream up some strange twin storyline.

With another glance around, he noticed the same janitor's closet he had hid in earlier. Stashing an unconscious body in a closet? It was cliched, he would admit, but you couldn't knock on the classics. He dragged the body forward and shoved the door open, and not-so-carefully, tossed his past self in. Roman winced when his past self smacked his head on the side of the closet. Oh well…

Okay, it was time to think through this plan. What did he need to make this work? For starters, he needed to look the part: ring gear.

Roman quickly pulled off his past self's boots and pants, and he traded his sneakers and jeans for them. Why is this so weird, he wondered. It's my body; it's not like I'm invading someone else's privacy.

He pulled off the handy hoodie and traded it for the tactical vest. Roman briefly considered tying his past self up just in case the man would awaken early and halt his plans entirely. He ultimately decided against it since he didn't have anything with him to tie himself up with, and he did hit him pretty hard. Roman didn't think he'd be getting up anytime soon, so there would be no need to take that precaution.

Roman took a deep breath and checked the time on the golden pocket watch. Perfect, he had just enough time to head over to the entrance mark to meet Seth and Dean.

The next ten minutes were a weird blur for Roman: surreal at reliving things he had already seen and done but also very foreign. Everything felt like it was from decades ago. The sound of Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta, Shield was so strange to hear; he never even realized he missed it. He felt like he was underwater with everything sounding muted and far away. Roman was there, he was going through the motions, but his mind was far away. He was almost reeling with the possibilities of what his actions would yield.

Finally, he found himself in the ring with Dean and Seth. He couldn't help but contain the adrenaline coursing through his body, and he began to pace to try to burn some of it off while Dean began speaking.

"How do we look? Cause we feel great. Bruised, beaten up for sure because last night we faced our greatest challenge to date: a no hold barred elimination match against Evolution. When the napalm settled, we did exactly what we always said we'd do - eliminate every single member of Evolution without a single elimination of our own. That's what I call domination." Dean dropped his mic and stalked off, shooting a small smile at Roman as he turned around. Roman couldn't find it in himself to smile back at the Lunatic Fringe, his mind still reeling from the man trying to kill him.

Next up was Seth. "Adapt or perish? That was the whole deal right? Last night at Payback, the Shield adapted while Evolution perished. And earlier tonight the whole world was a witness to their implosion. And the reason Evolution perished was because even though they are three of the greatest superstars in the history of this industry, last night they were not one like the Shield. In the end, they were just three strangers that just happened to be standing on the same side of the ring."

"They weren't brothers," Roman said. He stared at Seth until the Architect looked over at him. Roman knew his past self had put a hand on Seth's shoulder as a display of brotherhood, of solidarity, but he didn't. In that moment, it didn't matter that those events hadn't happened yet (or might never happen); all that mattered was Roman remembered them. Seth frowned, and Roman could see confusion in the young man's eyes.

Roman continued, "The men standing in this ring are brothers. We bleed for each other; we stand with each other. This is evolution," Roman said as he held out an open hand before he closed it into a fist and said, "And this is the Shield. Randy Orton! Get your ass out here and let me break your jaw with this symbol of excellence."

And there it was: Evolution's entrance theme. Triple H and Orton confidently strutted down to the ring as their ring music, underscored with a chorus of boos. Triple H held his trusty sledgehammer close, ready to weld the awful weapon.

Seth slide out of the ring and grabbed some chairs from the tech guys. He set the chairs on the floor of the ring and slide back in before standing next to his brothers, holding onto one of the chairs.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, what I do better than anybody is adapt. Last night was Plan A; tonight - tonight is Plan B." Hunter paused before he smirked and said again, "There's always a Plan B."

Dean and Roman took a couple steps forward ready to attack, leaving Seth standing alone behind them, leaving themselves unprotected against their teammate. He could picture Seth tensing his arm muscles before pulling the chair back and preparing to perform the "chairshot heard around the world".

Roman waited a moment before he spun around, catching the steel chair aimed directly for his back.

Seth's wide eyes stared at him as he held onto the opposite end of the chair. The Architect looked completely shocked, and he was comprehend what had happened. Roman slowly shook his head at Seth and yanked the chair out of his grasp. Yet again, Seth tried to betray him; Roman knew this was going to happen, and yet he couldn't stop the sheer rage from engulfing his entire being.

Seth wanted to end their brotherhood. This thought seemed to take tangible form and flash red in front of his eyes. Roman pulled the chair back and released a devastating hit to Seth's torso; the physical hit didn't quell his fury, so after Seth hunched forward, he followed it up with smack to Seth's back. The Architect crumpled to the mat.

"What the hell are you doing, Roman?" Dean's livid voice rose just loud enough to be heard over the rumble of the crowd. The Lunatic Fringe grabbed Roman's arm, trying to stop the Samoan. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

Roman looked at the Lunatic Fringe. He was doubting Roman's actions! Roman was doing this for him; he was doing this for Seth; he was doing this to make them a family his eyes narrowed into a glare over at Dean and shoved him back with the hand not holding the chair.

Dean's eyes widened in disbelief as he fell backwards, not expecting that type of physical response. Roman had hit Seth with the chair, _Roman, of all people,_ for God's sake. Now the Samoan was advancing towards him with the chair in hand. His big brother raised it over his head and sent it sailing down towards Dean, and Dean could only watch with disbelieving eyes.

"Ooooooaaaah!"

 _Smack._

 _Smack. Smack. Smack._

 _Smack_

Dean groaned. His arms holding, grasping onto his abused torso. His entire body ached. And it was far from over. He looked up in apprehension as Roman lifted the chair again, and he closed his eyes, unwilling to see the dead look in Roman's eyes: an expression void of any form of empathy or remorse.

 _Smack Smack Smack_

But the next hit never hit Dean. Dean opened his eyes to see Seth leaning over him: his expression twisted in pain as Roman rained chairshots down on his back.

Roman grabbed the back of Seth's vest and flung him across the ring like a ragdoll. He snorted at the now-bent chair in his hands before he flung it out of the ring, almost hitting someone in the crowd but just narrowly missing them. Roman stalked over to the other chair and snatched it up.

 _Smack Smack Smack_ until the chair broke over Dean's back that time. Roman glowered at them, willing them to get up, holding the bent and dented chair. But neither could; neither would. Both Seth and Dean were as broken and bent as the chair Roman held in his hands.

Roman exited the ring and walked up to Triple H and Orton. Orton held out his hand for the chair, but Roman ignored it. Instead, he glared at the two and dropped the dented chair at their feet. He glared at the two men before he stalked backstage, hearing the boos surround him and someone in the crowd yelling "WHY?" at him.

Before he turned the corner to go around the curtain, he saw Orton and Hunter getting into the ring. Triple H was readying his sledgehammer for a hit on his fallen brothers… but Roman kept walking and never looked back.

* * *

Review. :D


	9. Chapter 8: Cracks

So here's the next bit. I have to admit that the reviews from the last chapter made me smile - exactly the reaction I was hoping for.

Chapter Eight: Cracks

 _June 2, 2014 9:58 PM_

Even though the crowd was still screaming, clapping, and booing; even though there was a "You sold out!" chant being shouted, the world was oddly quiet because Roman was underwater. The only sounds he heard were the steady clomps of his boots hitting the floor and his heart pounding wildly.

When he was back in the janitor's closet where his past self was still unconscious, he slunk against the wall and for the first time since he grabbed the steel chair, he wondered what had just happened.

What was he thinking? Where was his mind when he was in the ring? Better yet, where were his morals? It was as though they abandoned him completely. He just attacked his brothers.

In cold blood. Without a thought.

He broke two chairs over his brothers' backs. And he was supposed to be the righteous one in this situation. He was the wronged party; he was the victim when Seth betrayed them, so why was it this easy to dish it back out on the man? Not to mention, he attacked Dean, who was only reacting to what seemed to be an unprovoked attack by him to Seth.

What had he been thinking?

He hadn't been, clearly. He had allowed his emotions to dictate his actions. He had acted purely out of his own rage, frustration, and anger from knowing the events of his own original timeline. Those feelings had just bubbled back up, and with no regrets, he'd swung that chair and in some warped way in his mind, got revenge.

What had he done?

Roman buried his head in his hands, feeling tendrils of guilt slowly work their way from his abdomen where his stomach turned in shame gradually working its way to his chest.

Maybe...just maybe this would still work out. Maybe his brothers would forgive his actions from this night, and everything would still turn out okay as he had hoped. Maybe the missing factor in all these attempts to change the past was to react out of emotion and let things run their natural course. Maybe...

Roman slowly pulled out the pocket watch. He carefully turned the dials forward and snapped the lid shut. He tried to calm his breathing, tried to stop his heart from racing, but eventually he just gave up and closed his eyes.

 _Thump Thump Thump_

 _November 2, 2015 9:25 P.M._

 _Thump Thump Thump_

Roman took a deep breath and eased it out once again. His heart was still was racing: _Thump Thump Thump._ He glanced around and didn't recognize where he was. He wasn't in the same locker room he had been using. It was an upgraded version: a private locker room. Roman couldn't help but feel impressed by it. He was used to sharing with someone, normally Dean, but he had never had his own private locker room before. Usually that kind of privilege was reserved for the champion…

"No way," Roman mumbled to himself. He glanced around the room, noticing his bag on the plush leather couch against the wall and something sitting on top of it.

He quickly crossed the room and stared in shock at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt casually sitting on his bag as though it belonged there. His eyes widened at the sight of his signature RR logo on the side plates of the belt.

"It's mine. I finally did it. I'm champion," he whispered as he reverently traced the "W," surprised the belt wasn't just a figment of his imagination. He carefully lifted the belt, almost cradling it and draped it over his shoulder. As he did, he noticed he was wearing new ring gear: black pants and boots as usual but also a new black vest with red accents.

The belt sitting on his shoulder felt good, like it belonged there. He smiled; something finally went right. Finally, he felt like he was where he was supposed to be.

How did he win the title? Was it against Lesnar at Wrestlemania? Was it sometime after? Was his family able to make it to whatever match it was to witness it?

His musings were cut short by very faint knocking on his locker room door.

"It's open," he called out. Well, he hoped it was…

The door opened slowly, and a young woman carefully stepped into the room, clutching onto a folder. Her copper hair was pulled into a messy bun, and she was wearing a recent WWE tour shirt. After a second of watching her avoid making eye contact with him. She studied her feet carefully and softly said, "Mister Reigns, Sir? Do you have a moment to approve this new T-shirt design? If you don't I can go…"

"Sure, babygirl, what do you have for me?" Roman asked as he reached out for her to hand him the designs. Roman knew this girl from somewhere….

She flinched as though she expected Roman to attack her with his title belt. She tentatively held out the folder and handed it to him.

He glanced down at the folder and immediately noticed a business card paper clipped to the outside, which read Marie Battellow. Marie. Oh, he knew her from the other two time lines: as the girl who gave Dean pudding if he asked politely and as his manager.

Roman frowned. Why was Marie acting like this? The other two times he met her she was nothing but confident, although the last time they met she was an extreme bitch. He idly studied the design, liking the slight tweaks to his logo on the front. "Looks good, thanks Babygirl."

Marie looked up in shock and surprise. "Really? No changes?"

Roman frowned. Why was she so surprised? "I don't think so. It looks great. The creative team did a great job with the design."

Marie quickly ducked her head once again, avoiding eye contact. "Okay, thanks, Mr. Reigns. Sorry to take up so much of your time."

"You can call me Roman, and it's no problem. Thanks for clearing them with me." He smiled at the shy woman.

Marie's lips quirked up in a small smile. "Oh, Mr. Roman, you should probably head over to your entrance mark. Remember? You have the main event match tonight."

Roman nodded. "Who am I up against tonight?"

A baffled expression crossed Marie's face. Normally, Roman never talked to her _this_ much; the man was normally too busy being the face of the company for that kind of interaction. "Um, Daniel Bryan."

Great, Roman thought to himself. He didn't have anything against Daniel Bryan; it was quite the opposite really. He respected the hell out of the guy: both as a person and as a wrestler. The only issue was how beloved Bryan was to the WWE universe. The crowd wanted nothing more than to cheer for the ultimate underdog, which wouldn't do Roman any favors. Since the crowd was so against him, they would boo him out of the arena, if not the state, tonight. "Thanks, Babygirl. I better get going then."

Marie nodded and walked with him out the door. She gave him a parting small smile and whispered, "Good luck, Mr. Reigns."

And Roman found himself correcting her by saying "Roman" automatically.

"Good luck, Roman."

"Thanks," he replied. He headed to the spot he had used as his entrance mark back in his time stream with the hope it was still the right spot.

As he approached the entrance mark, he saw a production crew member pulling on her curly hair in distress as she frantically paced back and forth in front of another crew member who was casually leaning against the wall, playing on his phone.

"Can you believe this?" The girl asked. "The dude is always so freaking punctual all the time except for when we're put in charge of making sure everything goes on without a hitch! And it's five minutes after he was supposed to get here! Five minutes! This is horrible! I'm going to get fired! I lost their Samoan! And what the hell, Andrew? You're playing _Angry Birds_! Don't you care?"

Andrew barely glanced up from his phone. "Relax, sweetie. He probably ran into a fan or something. You know how he is, he's probably heading over right now. You always give him an earlier meeting time anyways, so we won't even delay the show. Stressing about it won't help anything, babe."

"Don't you 'babe' me! That won't change the fact he's still MIA! And we're going to get fired and end up living on the streets! And the McMahons will never let me work in the business again!" The girl looked like she was about to burst into frustrated tears.

Andrew finally slid his phone into his pocket. "Sarah, do you want me to head over to his locker room? I will if that'll make you feel better."

"I'm here. Sorry, I'm late. I had to approve a new design for Marie."

Sarah let out a visible sigh of relief. "I'm going to kill Marie later even if she is my best friend. Oh thank God, you're here. You scared me; I thought I'd have to go wrestle for you tonight, and that was not going to end well" She handed him a bottle of water.

Roman chuckled as he imagined the petite girl facing Bryan, but instead of wrestling, she would give him a lecture on the importance of punctuality… He took a gulp of water and dumped the rest on his hair.

Andrew pulled out his phone again, but instead of attacking more pigs, he checked the time. "Your music will be on in a minute. Good luck, Mr. Reigns."

Sarah nodded. "Oh and watch out for the Wyatts tonight. They haven't made an appearance yet, and they might want to show off that new member of theirs by interfering with your match."

"The dude in the farmer overalls? What's his name? Erp?" Andrew asked, voicing his concern.

"Nooo, the other new Wyatt! Who else would I mean? Some stupid body builder named, Beef Stroganoff? Of course, I mean Erp! He's the scariest Wyatt of them all!"

Andrew snorted. "Like the company would be dumb enough to hire another worthless body builder who can't wrestle! But I do like that name…"

The first guitar riffs of Roman's theme began, and he handed the water bottle to Andrew. "Thanks, both of you," he said before heading out into the audience to make his entrance.

"Hey Andrew," Sarah said after Roman left.

"Yeah?"

"He's never that nice to us, is he? Do you think he has a concussion or something?"

Andrew shrugged. "Maybe he had a change of heart and is now a good person instead of a self-serving ass."

The two exchanged glances before bursting out into laughter. "Yeah right, like that could happen."

Roman was on Cloud 9. The crowd was positively electric. There wasn't a single fan not standing and...cheering? Everyone was cheering for him! What in the world? When was the last time he received a universally positive response from the fans? He made his way down the aisle, and for possibly the first time ever with his entrance, no one groped him or shoved him. Of course, a few fans held out hands for a High Five or patted his back, but it was all actions of love and respect.

He carefully stepped over the barricade and approached Bryan who was already standing in the ring. He scanned the audience and was taken aback by how many signs he saw, supporting him. There were about a dozen _Roman Empire_ signs. There were several _In Roman we trust_. He saw one _When it Reigns, the fans score_ , and one that proclaimed _Roman Reigns: Lesnar slayer and Shield destroyer_.

The last sign made him pause, but he shook it off. He was sure it was a weird exaggeration by the fan; there was no way _he_ would have destroyed the Shield. Right? ...Right?

He entered the ring and shook hands with Bryan. Roman was happy to see he was still on good terms with the leader of the Yes! movement.

"The following contest is set for one fall! And it is for the World Heavyweight Championship!"

Roman squared up with Bryan as the audience began a "Roman Reigns" chant, and he couldn't conceal his grin. He hadn't felt this loved and appreciated by the fans since...since he was in the Shield.

Throughout the match, the crowd gasped and cheered at all the right spots. They kept on igniting various chants in support of Roman, and at one point, a "This is awesome" chant began.

Marty leaned forward in her seat and smiled sadly at Roman as he finally pinned Bryan. As everyone jumped to their feet, she remained seated; in every other of her appearances, Marty very deliberately positioned herself to be seen by Roman. However, in this moment, she wanted to experience the atmosphere without being noticed. Roman stood carefully and the official raised his arm into the air; the Samoan had the biggest smile on his face. Marty sighed; she knew this would happen, and she knew how difficult, how impossibly unfair it was going to be for the man in the ring, who in that moment looked so happy. She sighed; she knew these things, but knowing them didn't make matters easier. No, knowing only made things worse, much worse.

Marty fiddled with something in her hands, and she closed her eyes. In one moment, she sat at the main event for the November 2, 2015 RAW with many people around her, but in the next, she was years away, sitting in a misty graveyard holding a long spindle in a loose grip with inevitability as her company.

Roman shook hands with Bryan again and slowly made his way backstage, stopping to talk with fans and sign autographs along the way.

After finally making his way backstage (because he had spent so much time interacting with the Universe), Roman couldn't wipe the goofy grin off his face. This timeline just felt right. Although, he was curious to see where Seth and Dean were. Maybe they were still tag teaming together, so they had an earlier match that night…He should find out where his brothers were. There was no doubt in Roman's mind his brothers were still extremely successful and thriving in the WWE.

The backstage area was buzzing with crew members, producers, other Superstars hanging around. Roman noticed Bryan, so with the title firmly over his shoulder, Roman walked over to where Bryan was talking to a crew member.

"Hey, Roman," Bryan said, cheerfully. "Good work out there."

"Thanks, I appreciate it, man. It was great working with you."

Bryan smiled. "I'm just going to head to the locker room and head out. Take care."

"Wait, you think Seth and Dean are in that locker room? Or would they have a private locker room. I wanted to talk to them."

Bryan gave Roman a weird look. "No, they're not there… See you around, Roman."

Roman frowned. That was odd… He spotted the couple from earlier who was assigned to his entrance mark. Sarah was playing with her hair and giggling as her partner, Andrew, was clearly hitting on her. Roman made his way over to them. "Excuse me."

The two stopped flirting and glanced over at Roman. Sarah looked very unimpressed, and Andrew gave Roman a dubious look. "Yeah?"

"Do you know where Seth and Dean are?"

Instantly, their expressions changed from annoyed to nervous. "Course not," Sarah responded. "Why would we know that?"

Roman frowned. "Is it just because you're not assigned to work with them…?"

The two exchanged looks, and Andrew said, "You could say that."

Sarah grabbed Andrew's arm and began to walk away. "Sorry, we have to go. There's so much to do tonight."

Bull shit, they had been wasting time before Roman walked over. Now he knew everyone knew something he didn't. For some reason the sign from earlier popped into his head. _Roman Reigns: Lesnar slayer and Shield destroyer_.

He hadn't destroyed the Shield, had he? Seth and Dean were still around: happy and successful, right?

He glanced around the room and noticed no one was making eye contact with him. He sighed and began to head over to his locker room. On his way, he ran into none other than Triple H.

To Roman's surprise and horror, Triple H clapped a hand on his shoulder and beamed at him.

"Roman! Good work out there, champ! No matter how much pressure we put on you, you still deliver. I couldn't have anyone more deserving to be my future successor. Good work, son."

Roman gaped at Triple H. Successor? Son? Him? No way in hell! He managed to nod slightly at the Game.

Triple H smiled and his normally cold eyes, emitted nothing but fondness for Roman. " I need to get going; you know Stephanie and how she is about schedules. We'll have to have you over again soon for dinner. Stephanie loved having you over last week. Take care now, Roman."

Roman nodded again and watched Triple H walk away. What had just happened? He blankly walked back to his locker room. Just as he finished changing out of his ring gear, there was a soft knock on the door.

Roman walked over and opened it to reveal Marie standing there, nervously studying her shoes. "Can I talk to you for a moment, Mr. Reigns?"

"Sure," Roman said as he let her in. "And it's Roman."

"I heard you were asking about Dean and Seth," Marie whispered.

Roman nodded. "I haven't seen or heard from them since getting here." He then realized how dumb that sentence sounded since Marie didn't know he was time traveling.

Marie gave him a funny look. "I didn't think you kept in contact with them at all really."

"Why wouldn't I keep in contact with them?"

Marie sighed and carefully sat down on the couch as Roman did the same across from her. "You didn't keep up with them at all after you ended the Shield, did you?"

Roman frowned and shook his head. Why did he always end up being such an asshole in each of these scenarios?

"Well, I guess that's where it all started when you ended the Shield," Marie said, thoughtfully. "It was such a brutal attack and then Hunter and Orton attacked, too. Dean and Seth never could regain momentum here in the WWE. They would end up jobbing a lot. It was a shame since they're so talented. It got to the point where the higher ups wanted to banish them to NXT. Not even to rebrand them, but just have them sulk around and serve as a reminder to the up and coming talent of what-not-to-be."

"You've gotta be kidding me," Roman said in almost a growl.

Marie shook her head. "Trust me; I wish I was. It was probably the biggest insult they could have gotten. Luckily, Seth still had connections on the Indy scene. Ring of Honor contacted him because his treatment here honestly pissed them off. They didn't think someone who was previously their company's top man should be hidden in WWE's developmental. Their talent relations guy called up Seth and gave him an offer, but Seth declined it, saying he couldn't abandon Dean. Within the hour, the guy called Seth back with the same offer, only with a matching one for Dean. So they accepted and left this company, riding off into the sunset and flipping off Hunter. They don't like people talking about it, which is why no one would answer your questions before."

"Wow," Roman said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm glad they got out of here when they could."

Marie raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "You're happy for them?"

Roman nodded. "Of course, I am. Developmental with no chance of being called back up would have killed them; it would've been like Purgatory." Roman sighed. "What I wouldn't give for a chance to talk to them…"

Marie frowned. "What would you say?"

Roman glanced at her. "I'd apologize. When I ended the Shield, I was acting on instinct; I didn't think about the consequences. I… I just want my brothers back."

Marie fidgeted slightly. "And you'd tell them that? You wouldn't hurt them again?"

"Of course," Roman said without a thought.

Marie was quiet. "So if they were hypothetically in the same town as us tonight, you would drop everything to go and apologize to them? Just like that? No doubts, no hesitations? You wouldn't hurt them?"

"Well, yeah… they're my brothers and…" Roman was quiet for a moment before he said, "You know where they are tonight, don't you?"

Marie bit her lip. "Yeah, I mean we're still friends, so I'll go see their shows when the tours matchup. They're actually in town tonight. They're taking part in a dark show in the city's limits. It's pretty low key; one of those you-have-to-be-on-the-list events."

"But _you_ are on the list," Roman said, excitedly.

Marie nodded. "I'm always on the list."

"So you could get me in without a problem."

"Well...I _could_ ," Marie said. "I'm not sure if I should."

"Why not, babygirl?"

"You've hurt them, Roman. And I don't want to bombard them in what-should-be a safe place for them; ROH is their sanctuary."

"I won't make things worse. I want to try to fix things between us."

Marie was quiet for a moment as she studied him, intently before she said, "I'm going to trust you, Roman. Please, don't betray my trust." She sighed. "Change out of your ring gear and put on a hoodie. I'm parked out back, a blue Civic. I'll met you out there in ten. If you're not there, I'm leaving without you. And Roman don't screw this up again."

As Roman quickly changed, he began to doubt whether seeing Dean and Seth would help anything. The selfish part of him pointed out that aside from them not being in the WWE, he had everything he could ever want: great opponents, the title, adoration from the fans… What if the only way he could have this kind of success was to get rid of his brothers?

Roman shook his head; he wasn't going to go down that realm of thought. He grabbed his bag, pulled his hood up, and rushed to the parking lot. He spotted the blue Civic and saw Marie talking to Sarah through the open car window.

"I just really think this is an awful idea. I know you feel for the guy, but you're letting your personal issues cloud your judgement. Just because you wish your brother would get over himself and apolgize to you, doesn't mean you should do this. Think of what you're going to do! You want to take the freaking face of the company to a rival company's event! So he can talk to two guys who are on Vince and Hunter's shit list! If anyone sees you two there, you could get in serious trouble!"

Roman could hear Marie admit softly, "You're probably right...about everything. I'm probably being-"

"Overly quixotic," Sarah said, quickly.

Marie glared at her. "But I think he really wants to make things right...And I think he deserves a chance to at least say he's sorry."

Sarah sighed. "I'm just worried. You're my best friend. I don't want you to get fired over something so preventable."

"If it makes you feel better, I don't think there will be anyone there who'll want to rat _me_ out."

Sarah snorted. "But I'm sure there will be plenty of people who'd want Mr. Asshole's head on a silver platter; it'll be like Salome dancing for the king to behead Jokanaan."

Marie stared at Sarah for a moment. "Oscar Wilde, really? Am I Salome in this scenario?"

Sarah grinned. "You're definitely not the creepy prophet or the king in the scenario. I'm just saying that you're putting him in a scenario where he can't win - despite your good intentions. And by the way, where is Fabio?"

Marie shook her head, fondly. She glanced past Sarah. "Oh, there's Roman."

Sarah pulled a face as she turned around and saw Roman. "Mr. Reigns," she said, primly. She glanced at Marie and said, "But just be carefull. If I have to bail you out of jail because those three kill each other...just call me before 3 AM."

Sarah shot Roman a suspicious look as she walked away. Roman sighed, and as he slid into Marie's blue Civic, he could admit to himself he didn't know what to expect.

Roman stared at the old barn in front of them as Marie parked her car in the empty pasture. "I think you have the wrong place…"

Marie raised an eyebrow. "No, it's just a couple of dark matches since they were in town for something on Sunday. A couple of the wrestlers stayed in town on their own time to put on some matches for fans to show their appreciation. Sorry if it's not up to the WWE standards."

Roman frowned. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm just surprised. It's not like it's normal to have a show in a barn - seems a little bumpkin-like to me."

Marie glared at Roman and finally finding her confidence she said. "Do you want me to get you in or what?"

Roman sighed. "Of course. Just forget I said anything, please."

Marie rolled her eyes. "Fine, let's go." Marie tossed a baseball cap at Roman and got out of the car. "And try not to talk; we don't need anyone recognizing you."

Roman put on the hat and pulled up his hood as he stepped out of the car. He followed Marie to the barn doors where a large, bald man was standing with a tablet.

"Hi, Mark," Marie greeted, warmly.

The man frowned at Marie before his face broke out into a large smile, and he pulled her into a hug. "Marie! It's great to see you! I didn't think you'd make it out! Normally, your job never lets you get here before we're done."

Marie laughed. "I know. My bosses are total slave drivers. This is my cousin, Ryan."

"Nice to met you," Mark told Roman, who nodded in acknowledgement. Mark shook his head at Marie. "You aren't kidding about them being slave drivers, especially their golden boy. That pretty boy treats you like shit. How many times did he veto the last design for no reason? 10? 20?"

Marie blushed and quickly glanced at Roman before looking at Mark again. "Only 7..."

Mark snorted. "When are you going to quit and get a job with us? You know there are like a dozen people who would vouch for you, and you are more than qualified."

Marie smiled, sadly. "I know. I'll keep it in mind, Mark."

"Alright, sweetheart, just remember you have people here who care about you." He tapped the tablet with a stylus. "Okay, we have Marie plus a guest. Go on in. You're just in time to see your boys."

"Thanks Mark," Marie said, smiling, and she entered the barn, grabbing Roman's arm and pulling him along behind her.

Inside the barn, there was a squared circle, which looked very out of place in the wooden barn with bales of straw acting as the steps on the sides of the ring. Several dozens of people were either standing around the ring or sitting on bales of straw positioned around the ring.

"And fighting the Addiction, we have Calculated Madness!" The ring announcer said into the microphone.

Marie smiled and nudged Roman's side. "Here are our boys."

Sure enough, through the doors on the opposite side of the barn, Seth and Dean walked in. They were wearing matching T-shirts with their logo, a stylized rendition of their name, Calculated Madness in red font. The first word was very purposeful looking with firm, straight lines composing the letters while the second was composed of a slanted scrawl, which almost seemed to bleed into the red lines of the border around the logo. It was combination of formulated, cohesive design meeting the loss of regulations and the disregard for traditional guidelines.

"The marketing geek in me loves how they break so many rules when it comes to design. They have like ten different fonts in their logo, and normally that's awful since it looks cluttered and borderline schizophrenic. But here with Dean and Seth, it works well with their concept. They know what's expected of them, but they chose to ignore it, and since society labels what's normal and what's abnormal, they become _insane_ because they go against societal norms. It's all about perception." Marie shrugged at Roman's raised eyebrow as she realized she was rambling.

Roman shook his head and scrutinized his brothers. They looked good. Aside from their shirts, they wore black leggings with typical wrestling boots. Seth had on his gloves while Dean wore his hands in his signature, taped-up style. But above all, they seemed at peace with each other.

Throughout the match, Roman allowed himself to be enraptured by the amount of sheer talent his brothers possessed. They worked together like a well-oiled machine. They didn't need to talk or even look at each other to know what the other was doing; they just knew. This strange, preternatural bond resulted in all of their movements being so graceful and so fluid that the match should have been considered a work of art, equivalent to Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's elegant choreography.

Even though it was a dark match that didn't hold any significance, the crowd was invested, completely. So when Seth and Dean stood triumphant after their pinfall, the crowd cheered the two anti-heroes, and the two brothers walked out side-by-side ready to face their next challenge.

Roman let out a breathe he didn't realize he was holding. He began hurrying to the back doors his brothers disappeared through.

Marie grabbed his arm. "Roman," she said in almost a hiss as to not alert anyone to his identity.

Roman shook her off and hurried through the doors. He glanced around and saw Seth and Dean off in the distance by a car, stretching to cool off their muscles. He quickly walked over to them. Roman opened his mouth to say something before he realized he had no clue what he was going to say.

Seth looked up from where he was messing with his phone. There was an amazing moment where his face was relaxed and open, but then his brow furrowed and he scowled. "What the fuck are _you_ _doing here_?"

Dean looked up from where he was touching his toes; his face was devoid of emotion. Seth set one of his hands on Dean's arm. Roman couldn't tell if it was for comfort or to hold Dean back; if the latter was the reason, it seemed odd since the Lunatic Fringe hadn't reacted at all.

"I wanted to talk to you," Roman said, lamely.

"You wanted to talk to us?" Seth asked. He didn't want clarification, but he was merely throwing the statement out as though it was the most ludicrous notion in the world. "Hear that, Mox? Roman wants to _talk to us_." He laughed the same evil villain laugh he was famous for back in Roman's original timeline.

"Seth, I wanted to make things right between us-"

"It's Tyler Black now; Seth died a long time ago, and _you_ don't get to decide to do that on a whim. Where were you after that RAW? Where were you when they decided to ship us back to NXT? Hell, I know where you were. You were too busy being the WWE's golden boy. Too busy being an asshole to everyone. Too fucking busy for us." Seth narrowed his brown eyes on Roman. "Well, you know what, Roman? We don't need you. We don't want you. So you can get the hell out of our lives and don't fucking look back."

"Seth-"

"Roman" Dean's tone was odd: a mixture of cold, hatred and complete bafflement. "Roman" It was as though Dean wanted to test out the waters by using his name. "Roman…" The two syllables were foreign, unfamiliar to the man. Dean began to ground one of his fists into his other palm, itching to feel blood vessels burst and bones break. "I've been itching to beat some sincerity into your face for a long time. How's that sound? You think the WWE would still want you if I rip your fucking face off?"

Seth tightened his hold on Dean's arm in a warning grip.

"No,Tyler, we should teach this scumbag a lesson, a painful reminder of why you never stab your brothers in the back cause that's the worst sin you can commit. You never betray your brothers." Dean's voice emitted in a guttural rasp that sent a chill down Roman's spine.

"You don't understand. I-"

"Shut up," Dean growled and he stepped forward. "I'm going to ki-"

"Mox," Seth said, lowly. "Let's go. He's not worth it. You know the company's policy on fighting out of the ring. Let's not lose our jobs over _him_ of all people."

Dean continued to glare at Roman, but he nodded even though it seemed to take a lot for him to agree.

Seth threw an arm over Dean's shoulders and walked him back to the barn. Neither of them looked back, and Dean threw up a middle finger for good measure.

Dean and Seth hated him. He was the traitor in this world, not Seth.

Why couldn't he get anything to go right? Roman grabbed at his hair in frustration. No matter what he did, nothing turned out the way he wanted.

Finally, he was in a world where he was _over_. The fans _loved_ him. He was champion. He was successful. He put on great matches with talented individuals. The crowd chanted _his name_. They didn't _boo_ him.

But of course, things couldn't be _that_ simple. His life was amazing… Well, it was amazing if he chose to ignore the fact that he was apparently Triple H's Golden Boy. That he had dinner with him and Stephanie on a regular basis. That he was apparently a terrible person to any of the staff. That he single-handedly destroyed the Shield and betrayed his brothers.

 _He-_ Roman Reigns- destroyed the Shield. He beat his brothers until he broke two chairs on their back. He lost all control, allowed the anger and thirst for vengeance overwhelm him and turn him into a psychopath, causing him to hurt the very family he was trying to save. He made Dean and Seth's lives in the WWE so miserable they jumped ship to another wrestling promotion where they gladly took the opportunity to reinvent themselves. He was the reason why they hated him; Roman caused all these problems.

It shouldn't be this difficult though, Roman thought. He did everything right. He talked to Seth when he was standing on the ledge. But that didn't work either time. Why the hell didn't it work?

Why?

Why?

There was a tightness inhabiting his chest that was making it difficult for him to breathe. Roman pulled out the watch and popped it open. Before he could think about what he was doing, Roman felt his arm raise and he chucked the watch. It flew through the air and collided face-first with an old, rusted plow.

The glass cracked.

Roman held back a scream. This whole situation was doomed from the start. Screw Marty and her watch. Screw this time traveling bullshit. Screw everything!

The second hand stopped ticking when it hit twelve.

It was the ultimate injustice. Here's a time traveling watch; go make things right, but wait, nothing will ever turn out right.

As soon as the second hand ceased motion, the minute hand began to sail around the watch face, unimpeded by anything.

All he wanted to do was fix things. It wasn't like he had evil intentions! By all things considered, he had noble intentions.

The hour hand stood firm until the minute hand made twelve complete revolutions; then it began to turn backwards.

Roman buried his face in his hands in frustration. Why couldn't he be with his brothers again?

He looked up when he heard a low hissing noise. His eyes zeroed in on the watch, which was emitting a golden light. _Shit._ He ran over to it and hesitated. Picking it up violated everything he ever learned in movies… It screamed bad idea to him.

All of a sudden, the clouds emitted thunder and it started to pour.

Roman glanced around in confusion. It had been a clear night… He warily glanced at the watch and reached down to pick it up. As his fingers closed around the burning hot metal, his body was jerked forward, and he landed on all fours.

Mud splattered into his face; he reached out to straighten himself, and his hands were having difficulty finding something to grab in the muddy grass. He grabbed the marble stone in front of him for a tether as he carefully wiped his eyes clear of the mud.

Marble stone…

Gone were all the cars parked in the field, gone were the wrestling fans and ROH employees milling about, and gone was the barn. Roman now sat in the middle of a graveyard with dozens and dozens of neat rows of headstones. A raven screeched at him from somewhere to his right; he couldn't see where the bird was perched. The night was too dark. The sky continued to drench him as it growled in anger.

Where the hell was he? He glanced down at the watch still gripped in his hand; he noticed its face was now dark and it was cool to the touch, a sharp contrast to how it scorched his palm earlier as it emitted to preternatural light. The glass held a thousand spiderweb cracks from where it shattered after he threw it.

Shit, he broke the watch.

A bolt of lightning stretched down from the clouds; the zig zagging strike mimicking the spiderweb of shattered glass on the watch with its many paths and chaotic pattern. The deafening boom of the lightning soon followed the bolt.

Using the light as his first real opportunity to get an idea of his surroundings, his head darted back and forth, not seeing any sign of a distant road or of any person. There was no sign of anyone, no sign of life, other than himself and the raven somewhere nearby.

There were only rows and rows of headstones, only grave after grave.

Did he travel forwards or backwards? Was this something from his past or from his future? He didn't remember being in such a bleak situation, and Roman had a feeling this scene would be impossible to forget. He really had no way of knowing if this was his future either. Or even if breaking the watch put him in some quasi-limbo.

There was nothing nearby to give him a clue to where or when he was, just rows and rows of death.

Where the hell was he? Would anyone find him? What if he was stuck here in this graveyard for the rest of his life? Roman felt his heartbeat pick up even more as the panic began to reach a boiling point.

Another bolt of lightning arched down from the sky, lighting up Roman's surrounding once again.

Roman took a deep breath to calm his panicking body; he needed to take control over the situation. He glanced at the gravestone on which he was leaning and then to the ones next to it.

His heart stopped.

Time froze.

No way. There was no way any of this was real.

Roman Reigns: May 25, 1985 - June 2, 2014

Dean Ambrose: December 7, 1985 - June 2, 2014

Seth Rollins: May 28, 1986 - June 2, 2014


	10. Chapter 9: Back from the Future

**AN:** I loved the reviews for the last chapter. :D I'm ridiculously proud of this chapter. It's the wrap-up for this fic. I'm actually pretty proud of this fic. Thanks for sticking around this long, and I hope y'all enjoyed this as much as I did.

Thanks times a million to Captain. She edited this thing and was a solid mind to bounce ideas off of. You can probably blame her for this fic being this long, and thank her for me being prompt for posting. She's not a good editor. She's not a bad editor. She's the editor who's going to make sure I never use the word "that" in my writing. Oh wait, my bad - I meant to say, the's the best editor. :D

* * *

Chapter Nine: Back from the Future

 _Time: unknown Location: Unknown_

There they were, illuminated by the most recent bolt of lightning, which was illuminating and streaking across the brooding sky. Roman could see three distinct gravestones.

Roman Reigns: May 25, 1985 - June 2, 2014

Dean Ambrose: December 7, 1985 - June 2, 2014

Seth Rollins: May 28, 1986 - June 2, 2014

There was no possible way this was real. Roman _knew_ they didn't die that day; he knew. He lived through it. His present was November 2, 2015 over a year and a half after that day.

A part of him wanted to blame this situation on some sort of sick, twisted practical joke. But that thought was quickly dismissed. No, he had a sinking feeling this was all too real.

But why did his attempts to make things better, back to the way they should be, backfire so horribly? All Roman had wanted to do was regain his brotherhood, to make all three of them happy again, make all three of them a family again, to finally find that part of Seth that Dean said had died years ago. To show Dean that there was hope that they could be a family again.

And now he was stuck in some horrible limbo where not only did he lose both his brothers metaphorically but literally, and he too was lost. How did he mess up the timestream so spectacularly that he had managed to kill them all? Roman found himself curling his torso into himself with his shoulders hunched forward and his head dipping down.

For the first time in during this entire trip, Roman cried.

Why was it so wrong to just want his family to never be broken? Why couldn't he get it to work out? Why when he was left to his own devices was he such an asshole? Why couldn't he just make himself and his brothers happy? Why? Dammit, why?

He didn't know how long he was in that position mulling over his thoughts, whether it was hours or minutes, (then again, what is time if you cannot measure it?) before a warm hand settled on his shoulder, and he was pulled into a strong embrace. A part of Roman was vaguely aware that the rain had stopped, and the sun was peaking out of the clouds. He buried himself further into the hug, wondering where the miserable night had gone and if he really had sobbed in the mud for hours.

"Shhh, it's okay, darlin'."

Roman froze and pulled himself out of Marty's embrace confused, frightened and relieved someone was here with him. Even if that person was the accursed woman who gave him the damn watch in the first place. Was this all a sick joke to her?

Marty tried to set a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Roman flinched away from her. Marty sighed and said in a small voice, "I know you don't understand why at this point, so you probably hate me right now. But I gave you the watch for a reason."

"To screw with my head?" Roman said in a bitter and angry voice.

Marty shook her head. "Not quite. I saw how something that happened more than a year ago was still affecting you. It wasn't a healthy mindset. You needed to accept that some events are inevitable."

Roman glared at Marty. "Why is anything inevitable if you have the power to change anything that happened?!"

"Because the ability to change something does not immediately mean you should... Maybe it would help if I told you how I first acquired the watch," Marty said almost as though she was musing about adding an extra dash of vanilla into a cupcake recipe. She carefully turned the watch over in her hands. "But where would I start?"

"Why don't you just start at the freaking beginning! Not everything has to be so hard! Start at the beginning, and end with the end! Christ!" Roman shouted and then felt ashamed by his little outburst and fixed his gaze firmly on the mud and soaked grass.

Marty looked down at Roman. Her long grey hair falling forward and her brown eyes softening. "Oh Roman, if there's anybody that should get it; it's you. It's not as simple as a beginning or even an end. Time is a tricky thing. It's not as linear as the big wigs would have you think. Time's alive. A lotta times, there's not a place where things simply start. There's a place where something big happens; yes, that's true, but what started it was something where if you blink, you will have missed it. Things you thought were small were really much bigger and much more important than would've ever imagined. Look at your Seth. You thought if you could just head him off that night before the betrayal in the beginning, you'd fix things. Talk to him, and it would be a quick fix. Everything would be all hunkey dorey, but you weren't wrong. If you really wanted to stop him from thinking those things and doing what he did, you would've had to go back to June 14, 2013."

"What happened then?" Roman's brow furrowed. He didn't recognize or remember the significance of the date at all.

"That's the Shield's first lost by submission. Seth tapped out to the little goat man."

"Why would I have to travel to that date?" Roman asked, his mouth quickly pulled into a frown and his voice was almost monotone.

"That's when the thought wormed and wiggled its way into Seth's mind that he wasn't as good as you or Dean. He was the one to cause the team's first loss. If you wanted to change anything, you would've had to start there. But, before you go getting any funny ideas, listen. You would've had to stop nearly anytime Seth developed ammunition to break away. There are hundreds of little moments. Hundreds of moments that need a soothing touch."

"Hundreds…" Roman repeated in a far-off voice.

Marty nodded. "That's why, if it's inevitable and meant to be, something in time can't be fixed like how you would put a piece of tape over a ripped paper. No, it's more like shattering glass, like this watch face, sweetie. There are minute fractions and each one of them has to be mended in order for it to be properly fixed. If you don't attend to the small cracks first, you can never patch up the face and make it whole."

"Okay but if what you're saying is true, why didn't me preventing the car from hitting Dean and his death cause everything to go haywire?" Roman asked, suspiciously.

Marty shook her head with a small smile. "That's a good question, sweetie. The event wasn't natural; just you gaining the watch in the future caused him to alter his course. Dean wasn't meant to even go to the bar that night; in fact, he was supposed to stay in for the night with Thai food. As a result, an event occurred to rectify his presence there."

"By killing him off?" Roman asked, alarmed.

Marty shrugged. "Chronos has a tendency of being cruel and will use dubious methods to solve paradoxes. It's also why your duplicates would dissolve so violently when you would return to the same point back in time."

Roman made a face. "Yeah, that was one of the worst things I've ever witnessed."

Marty smiled. "I wouldn't doubt it, darling."

"Nothing I did seemed to make any difference. It's just so frustrating."

Marty sighed softly. "Trust me, I understand. I know from personal experience."

Roman looked up in confusion and gave Marty a stern look. Finally, he decided to ask the question that was on his mind throughout this entire adventure about how she managed to gain this supernatural watch. "Is that from when you first acquired the watch?"

Marty smiled, sadly; her eyes were distant. Before Roman's eyes, her hair darkened until it was the rich chocolate brown color, and her wrinkles smoothed into unblemished skin, skin that didn't know the test of time. "Yes… It's hard to know where to start; like I said earlier, things rarely happen in a way that's easy to tell when they began or when they ended. Some might argue that nothing ever really truly begins or ends."

Roman was about to open his mouth to say something, but he stopped when Marty waved her hand at him.

"I know; I know. I'll get on with it. I'll start with this; I was seventeen and naive, and I had fallen in love with a boy… The only rub in the situation was my daddy didn't approve of him. The boy was poor, and he was...what my daddy saw as below us. His ma was an Indian. I know that's not the term we say now a'days but old habits as you know…"

"Die hard," Roman said in almost a whisper.

Marty nodded. "Exactly, that's what they say, and I reckon, it might hold some truth to it. My daddy hated the idea of his oldest daughter, marrying someone below her social class standing. You see, it was a different time then where people couldn't chose their partners out of love and compatibility... No, things like social standing and race would dictate a marriage." Marty sighed. "I couldn't stand the man my father chose for me. He was more than twenty years my senior, and he was a cruel, awful man with an icy heart. So I convinced Will to run away with me." Marty was quiet for a moment.

Roman frowned as he glanced at Marty. He had a bad feeling about where this story was heading. Surely, there wasn't a happy ending. "And what happened next?"

"I snuck out one night to meet him; we thought we had the best plan to run away. But I...I had no idea my baby sister followed me. She was worried bout me. She wasn't even planning on stopping me, just on saying goodbye..." Marty's voice grew softer.

After staring into the distance for a moment, Marty walked passed the three gravestones, and Roman stared at her before he scrambled to his feet to follow her. He prayed she did not disappear leaving him stuck here for eternity.

"Marty?"

"She just wanted to say goodbye to me and to tell me she loved me."

"Marty?"

Roman almost ran into the woman when she stopped right in front of an old grave with a delicately carved angel, guarding a headstone.

Mary Beth Collins: April 6, 1845 - June 2, 1860

"My selfishness caused her death." Marty reverently stroked a hand across the gravestone. "She didn't know my daddy and my brother followed her out into the woods that night. I didn't have any notion of anyone of them behind us. All I knew was that one minute I turned and saw my daddy aiming a rifle at Will. The next my baby sister was crumpled up in front of us, lying on the ground, withering in front of us and dying because of a gunshot wound to her chest. And I held her as she bled out and took her final breaths in my arms."

"Marty, I-I'm so sorry." Roman stared at the woman, horrified at what she just revealed.

"So was I." Marty wiped a hand across her eyes. "At first, I blamed my daddy. He shot the rifle; he killed her. But then, I began to realize that it was all my fault...If I had told her before I left and gave her a chance to talk to me and say one last goodbye, if I hadn't avoided my duties as a daughter, if I hadn't fallen in love… she would have still been alive." Marty sighed, and she met Roman's concerned gaze. "It doesn't get any easier to talk about this even when so much time has passed."

Roman tentatively reached his hand out, and Marty held it. "It was after that tragedy when a strange woman visited me and asked me if I wanted a chance to change the past. It didn't take me more than a minute to say yes, and I was given a gold watch…" Marty lead Roman back to the Shield members' three gravestones.

"So you traveled."

"I traveled. I tried six different scenarios to try and save Mary, but I'm sure as you know from personal experience that none of them worked out. I didn't know about all the little cracks that needed to be repaired. I didn't know about how changing one thing could change everything else. It got to the point where I had given up completely. Then, finally when the woman came to me again, she introduced herself. Roman, have you ever heard of Ananke?"

"No?"

"Ananke means inevitability. She is also a Greek Goddess of the same concept; she tends to time and makes sure the inevitable happens. Ananke is the name of the woman who gave me the watch, and she is the Goddess that granted me immortality after I told her I had nothing, _nothing_ left to live for. And even though over a century ago, I was just Martha Mae Collins; I am now Ananke since I gave my body and my psyche to her on her second visit."

Roman's mouth dropped open as he stared at Marty...Ananke? Did this mean she was going to take his body?

Marty snorted. "No, Roman, I'm not some body snatcher. I made it possible for us to meet in order for you to learn that some events are inevitable. Time is a fragile entity. Cronos is fragile. Trying to change the past will often result in outcomes you would never have wanted. Time is cruel and unforgiving, but it always has a purpose. Seth needed to betray you that day. You know why?"

Roman shook his head.

"Because it was meant to be. It was inevitable. He needed to betray you and Dean in order to find himself and realize who he wants to be, who he needs to be. You need to accept what's inevitable."

Roman felt what little hope he still possessed crumble. "It's inevitable? I can't ever have my family back?"

Marty frowned. "You need to accept the betrayal was inevitable; you need to return to June 2, 2014 and let those events play out like they were supposed to."

"I don't think I can do that."

Marty sighed and then smiled. "Reigns, I'm going to show you something. I don't do this for everyone, but I like you Roman. Plus, I think you need to see this for yourself, but I just want you to know that it won't happen unless the betrayal takes place."

"Okay? What do you want to show me?"

Marty picked up the watch from the ground and gently ran a finger over the glass, fixing it. There were no pieces missing now, but there were still the ghosts of the shattered cracks of the past showcased on the face. She gently took and grasped Roman's hand in her own. "Close your eyes, sweetie."

Roman closed his eyes, finding no will to argue with Marty. He was just going to go along for the ride, and maybe things would turn out alright in the end.

"You can open them now," Marty murmured.

Roman opened his eyes and saw they were standing in front of seats in the audience of a WWE show. He was embarrassed for a moment she had to prompt him; the atmosphere had changed so much from the quiet graveyard to the bustle of a full arena, so it should have been obvious they were somewhere else.

"Marty, why did you bring me here?" Roman asked, softly.

Marty shot him a small smile and nodded her head towards the ring. "Take a gander and see for yourself, boy."

Roman turned and for the first time, really looked at the ring and who was in it. On one side was a group called the Club: Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and AJ Styles. Okay, that was strange, Roman had to think to himself; last he checked, none of them were in the WWE… Then on the other side stood Dean and himself. This was obviously a handicapped match.

Roman winced as he saw Styles put his other self in a Calf Crusher. "Where are we? Better yet, when are we?" He paused considering what he just said. "I feel like that's not the way to say that…"

Marty laughed. "About a year ahead of your present. We're at Survivor Series in 2016 at a match between the Club and you two knuckleheads."

"Huh. And we're here because...?" Roman asked before he grimaced as Dean was hit with a nasty looking Big Boot from Gallows outside the ring.

"I want to show you what your future will be like if you revert the past back to the way it was, which, yes, includes Seth betraying you and Dean."

Roman saw Gallows toss Dean into the barricade. "And seeing this will motivate me somehow? Because from where I'm sitting, it seems like something has to give in the past or my future is still going to be total crap and suck."

"Not necessarily," Marty said with a grin (that turned into a wince of sympathy when she saw Roman finally grab the rope to break out of the submission hold, only to receive a punch to his head from Anderson for his trouble).

Styles then hit Roman's older self with the Phenomenal Forearm. Roman shook his head, mesmerized by the scene in front of him. It was sort of like watching a car accident unfold before his very eyes. It was terrible to watch but impossible to look away. He really shouldn't watch this; now it looked like Styles was going to set him up in a Styles Clash...

"I'm telling you the payoff is totally worth it. Sometimes we have to endure a little to really reap the rewards," Marty then said in an oddly muffled voice.

The ref signaled the bell for a DQ when Styles took too long to break the submission hold.

"Jeez, these guys are brutal," Roman muttered when the Club kept on with their beatdown even after the match was over. Roman glanced at Marty to see her hands were completely covering her face, shielding her eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all hunky dorey," she said. She actually squeaked when the _smack_ of Roman hitting the mat rang through the arena. "Oh, I know you don't break your neck, but that move is down-right horrifying and a little too reckless for my taste."

Roman patted her arm, consolingly. "How do you think I feel seeing that? I'm not looking forward to being on the receiving end of that." He flinched when he saw Styles dropkick him clear over the top rope. "Jeez, that looked so bad I think I felt it…"

Marty uttered a muffled, "I think I felt it, too, and I'm not even getting my hide licked."

Roman raised an eyebrow at her choice of words. Nah, it wasn't even worth teasing her over slang. "So let me get this straight. You took me to a future where Dean and I get the shit beaten out of us by some crummy invading New Japan faction, where Seth apparently still hates us, and this is somehow not total crap? Marty, I'm sorry, but I think you're wrong about this one, Seeing this won't make me want to go back to the past and get blindsided again."

Marty finally uncovered her face and beamed at Roman. "You're right about that."

"It's just that-" Roman paused. "Wait, what do you mean, I'm right? I thought this was going to convince me to go back and take the chairshot?"

"Not the beatdown," Marty said with a shake of her head. She then pointed at the stage. "But that might."

All of a sudden _The Second Coming_ began playing, and Seth feverently ran down the ramp.

In the audience, Roman scowled when he saw his former brother climb into the ring. "What's Seth doing? Is he really going to help them beat us even worse? Dean and I are already down and out. What an ass-"

Roman paused when he saw Seth launch into a suicide dive on top of Gallows and Anderson. He quickly pulled Dean up to his feet, just in time to see the older Roman pulling himself into the ring with Styles following him. "What the hell?"

Marty smiled smugly and nodded.

Outside the ring, Dean gave Seth a long, hard look and fliched when Seth set himself up for a superkick. Seth's Avada Kadavra went right past Dean and hit a kneeling Gallows, who as the audience had seen was getting ready to attack Ambrose. Seth grinned widely at Dean before he began climbing up to the top rope, overlooking where Styles and Reigns were brawling.

Dean seemed conflicted as to whether he should stop Seth or not. For once, his former brother had actually helped him instead of hurt him… Instead of knocking Seth from his perch on the top rope, Dean pulled Anderson up into a Dirty Deeds and hit the move easily.

Seth stood on the top rope, waiting for his opportunity, and after a simultaneous blow that left both Styles and Roman flat on their backs with Roman lying closer to Seth's corner, Seth knew this was what he was looking for. The former Architect of the Shield smirked as Roman's eyes fluttered open and the man made eye contact with him. Roman began to try and move, which was a difficult task when he felt entirely spent.

"Rome, don't move," Seth said with a grin.

Roman shot him a look that clearly said _no way in hell_.

"Trust me, big brother."

Roman stilled and wondered when in time he lost his common sense.

Seth turned around and jumped. Roman watched as Seth flipped over him in a glorious Phoenix Splash onto Styles. Seth carefully stood up and then reached his hand down to Roman. Roman stared at the offered hand for a split second before he grabbed it and allowed Seth to pull him to his feet. The Architect looked at Roman full of doubt as he wondered if he did the right thing and if his former brothers could ever accept him back.

Dean scurried into the ring, looking dazed. He shot a confused look at Seth and put a protective hand on Roman's arm. Roman glanced at Dean and nodded at him. He then put out his closed fist. Dean stared at Roman before he slowly stretched out his arm and touched his fist to Roman's. Then both men turned to look at Seth.

An unasked question hang in their midst.

Seth instantly touched his fist to theirs.

And as the crowd exploded and cheered them on, the Shield were finally reunited.

Marty carefully grabbed Roman's hand. "Close your eyes, sweetie. You know what you have to do...Don't worry about your past self; I'll take care of the rest."

Roman stared at his future self with both of his brothers by his side, and his eyes began to water. He closed his eyes and listened to the "Hounds of Justice" chant as the crowd showed their appreciation for the brothers finally being together once again.

 _June 2, 2014 9:55 PM_

When Roman opened his eyes, he realized Marty wasn't next to him anymore. Instead of her soft hand in his, there was the smooth surface of the gold pocket watch, not nearly as warm and comforting to him.

"In case you haven't figured it out yet, what I do better than anybody is adapt. Last night was Plan A; tonight - tonight is Plan B." Hunter paused before he smirked and said again, "There's always a Plan B."

Roman bit back the sigh he almost released. Here he was again. Could he do this… again? Marty was certainly asking a lot of him.

He was holding the watch. Who was to say he couldn't just turn back time again? He could jump from moment to moment and maybe by a miracle he could find a situation where he wouldn't have to go throw this.

He ran a finger over the cover of the watch. He felt the scuffs and the ding; he knew he would feel the outlines of a hundred cracks on the face if he opened the watch and would see the dried flakes of Dean's blood inside it. Everything he did had consequences; every time he changed the past, there were imprints.

Roman slide the watch into his pants pocket.

Dean glanced at Roman, and he nodded at his brother. Both men took a couple steps forward: one was ready to attack and the other was readying himself to be attacked.

Even though he knew what was going to happen, he left Seth standing alone behind them, leaving his back unprotected against his teammate, his brother. He could picture Seth tensing his arm muscles before pulling the chair back and preparing to perform the "chairshot heard around the world."

But he didn't have to imagine it for too long because sure enough the steel dug into his back, and he crumpled to the ground.

He didn't move by his own volition until he and Dean dragged themselves back to their locker room. He waited until after Dean left the room to grab some ice from the trainers' room before he pulled the watch out and slowly turned the dials forward. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping he could just return to how things were.

 _November 2, 2015 9:45 P.M._

"Looks familiar, don't it?"

Yes, it really did. He held the watch in his left hand, and he traced the outline of the ding as he scanned the area around him. He recognized the crowd, the anti-Roman Reigns signs in the crowd, Dean knocked silly behind the barricade, and his younger brother stalking towards him with a steel chair in hand.

"Looks familiar, don't it?" Seth yelled, and he grinned at the audience as though this was the most fun he'd had for the longest time.

Roman sprang to his feet and drew his arm back for a Superman Punch.

Time seemed to freeze as he made eye contact with Seth, and for a moment, an odd expression flashed across Seth's face. Roman couldn't place the emotion. If he were to venture a guess, he would say it was a cross of confusion and regret. But...it was unthinkable for _Seth_ to be regretful at this point… Right?

Roman's Superman Punch connected with Seth's face, and the Architect swiftly dropped, rolled out of the ring, and stumbled up to the stage.

Remaining crouched, Roman watched his younger brother seemingly panic and try to reassure himself that he had his title as Seth tightly grasped at the belt and cradled it.

Roman found Dean pulling himself to his feet, and after he slipped the watch into his pocket, he threw arm around the Lunatic Fringe's shoulders.

"It's okay, Rome. You'll get the championship. One way or another," Dean said as he looked at Seth's retreating form.

Roman just smiled. Suddenly, the championship wasn't all _that_ important.

Dean nudged his side. "I think you're supposed to say 'Believe that' right now or a simple 'I can and I will' would do the job."

Roman ruffled up Dean's already messy curls. "Thanks for the tip, little brother."

Dean swatted away Roman's hand with a smirk. "Hey, what can I say? Along with my good looks and charm, I'm here to give solid advice."

Roman grinned. "And you do just that, Dean. You always have my back, and you always will."

Dean smirked knowing full well Roman was right. "Course, I do. I'm always here for you, brother. Believe that!"

Roman couldn't help but groan at the Lunatic Fringe's use of his tagline. "Really Dean?"

Dean slide under the bottom rope and began the walk backstage with Roman following him. He threw a cheeky grin at his brother. "Is it my fault that's so catchy?"

The two Superstars made their way to the locker room they were sharing to shower and change.

"Dang it," Dean mumbled under his breath.

Roman looked up from where he was tying his shoe to see Dean examining his abdomen. "I know we were planning on going out tonight, but I don't think we should. Look, I'll just order some of that nasty, stinky Thai food for you, and you can relax. You really deserve to have an easy night, bro. I think it would do you a world of good."

Dean considered it for a moment. "You mean Pad Sa Tor?"

"Uh, yeah, that one..."

Dean seemed to be waging a war between his stubbornness and his appetite; however, his appetite won. "Alright, add in some Tom Yum Goong and you got yourself a deal, Uce."

On the way to the hotel, Roman stopped at a Thai restaurant where he ordered Dean's prefered dishes in a manner that left the college kid who was working the register sniggering at his horrible pronunciation.

When he pulled the rental car up to the hotel (with the windows idealistically rolled all the way down to try and air out the smell of Dean's pungent dinner choices), Dean waved off his offer to walk him in and check in by saying, "I got it, Uce. Just stop at the desk to get your key; I'll have them keep yours there. Have fun. Go and flirt with some beautiful chick for me."

Roman pulled the rental car into the nearly empty parking lot for Marty's bar, and he took his time walking into the bar and back to the same table he and Dean had inhabited the last time they were there. Oh, that time never happened...

" _Doc, about the future…"_

" _No! Marty! We've already agreed that having information about the future can be extremely dangerous. Even if your intentions are good, it can backfire drastically!"_

Roman had to chuckle when he caught sight of the old movie playing on the wall over the pool table on a TV monitor, which probably predominantly played sports games. _Back to the Future_ , really Marty? That lady had quite the sense of humor...

"Hello, darlin'," a familiar voice greeted him. "What can I get you tonight? Anything you're hankering for in particular? We're having a special on Fat Tire that's currently on tap."

"I'm going to pass on beer tonight." Roman grinned up at Marty and held out his hand. "I actually have something for you."

Marty took the gold watch from Roman with a fond smile. "Ah, I see. I suppose I haven't met you yet, Roman, so it's a pleasure to finally see you here."

"It's an honor to be here, ma'am."

"If you're not going to drink anything, boy, why don't I just grab us both some pie?"

"Is it your ma's recipe?"

"Oh, you know it most certainly is."

"Then what are you waiting for, Marty? I would love some," Roman said, cheekily in a very Dean-esque manner.

Marty laughed and walked back with the entire pie in a matter of moments. And Roman was content to just savor the decedent dessert, stealing forkfuls at a time while Marty chatted about - well- everything surrounding the bar: its politics, its workers and its customers.

Eventually, Marty decided it was time to kick Roman out. "I'm sure you have better things to do than chat with a very old woman." Ironically, Marty's hair chose that moment to darken into its chestnut brown.

Roman smiled. "Ma'am, if you're sick of me, just say so. I'll get out of your hair."

Marty chuckled and drew him into a hug. "I couldn't even dream of getting sick of you, charming boy. But you should get back. You have a busy schedule, and I'm sure those brothers need you more than I do."

Roman began walking out of the bar before he paused and looked back. "Marty, thank you."

"For what, darlin'?"

"Everything, Marty. Everything"

While driving back to the hotel Roman realized something, for the first time in a long time he had hope. Hope he had thought died a long time ago when Seth had turned on them, now he realized there was a spark...

As Roman walked away from the lobby's desk with his room key card in hand, he found himself wondering about endings. If this was a typical story, laid out on an outline to organize the plot, right about here there would be an ending. Maybe he would've added in a scene with him and Dean riding off into the sunset. But then again, if Marty was right, nothing ever really ended...

Roman quickly realized he hadn't showered or done anything in probably years, so he chose that moment to check himself over in front of the large mirror, which stretched tall and wide over the far side of the lobby's wall. As Roman gazed into the mirror, he saw Seth silently standing several feet behind him, which was extremely out of character for the young man.

Out of curiousity, Roman turned around but he did not find anyone there. He paused and scanned the lobby; the only other person there was the dozing concierge. That was strange he thought, but he shrugged it off and walked towards his room, musing about beginnings, endings, and everything in between.

Back in the lobby, Seth peered around the room, seeing Roman pause in front of the mirror. He gently touched the smooth glass, feeling it's strange cold seep warmth from his hand. In front of him, Roman glanced around and shrugged as he trudged away. In the mirror, Seth's pleading eyes frantically followed Roman's retreating form.

Roman quietly entered the room he was sharing with Dean. He carefully crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly until his alarm woke him up entirely too early. Zombie-like, he began getting ready for the morning.

He carefully shook Dean's shoulder as he called, "Come on Sleeping Beauty, up and at 'em."

The Lunatic Fringe didn't budge, so Roman ripped the blankets off the bed.

"ROMAN!" Dean shrieked as he jumped into the other man's arms in happiness, okay that was weird even for Dean, "You're you! You're not Cena's bitch! You're you, good; old I can and I will fight justice, believe that, Roman Reigns! I missed you, big brother!"

Roman stared at Dean, thinking that maybe, his brother had an experience as crazy as his. Nah, that was impossible. "Uh… Are you feeling okay, uce? You're acting really weird, weirder than usual I may add. I mean, I know I went out last night and you weren't feeling good, but still I thought that Thai food I brought you back wasn't that sketchy looking," Roman mumbled. A part of him was worried about revealing his adventure. What if Dean didn't believe him? "Maybe I shouldn't have brought you Thai food. What happened to you anyways? You were acting like you were having a nightmare?"

Dean said nothing until he pulled Roman into another hug, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Roman smirked. "I'm sure I would. You're not the only one with incredible stories, bro." He began putting their room into some semblance of order as he said, "We need to get on the road if we're going to make it to the next show on time since somebody thought it was a good idea to sleep in this morning."

The Lunatic dramatically rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the hotel room bed.

Roman continued to get both of their bags ready as he drank the complimentary hotel coffee. He glanced up when he heard Dean talking to someone.

"Hey Seth, good buddy, good pal of mine, I just wanted to say good morning to you and tell you, you are still the scum of the earth and a traitorous little weasel in my opinion." Then Dean slammed the phone down with a contented sigh.

Roman smiled and shook his head. He picked up his phone from where it was sitting on his open duffle bag. He unlocked the screen and saw that photo from when he and Seth won the tag team titles. His smile grew, and he glanced up to see Dean completely sprawled out on his bed like a contented puppy.

Everything may not be exactly how he wanted it to be right now, but Roman now knew if he was patient and just let the time stream work things out the way they were meant to be, the Shield would reunite. There might not be a sunset, nor would there be horses; however, there would be his two little brothers, and they would all be together, as a family, once again.

* * *

(And that's a wrap! :))

(RoRo comes around the corner in a bathrob in captain's apartment looking confused...

RoRo: You're still here?... It's over… Go home…

(RoRo then turns and walks away shaking his hand at the audience): Go…Crazy Writers...

(RoRo then rounds the corner, glances back once, and continues on his way.)

* * *

Brownie points for anyone who identifies the little dialogue bit. Tell me what it's from in a review. :D


End file.
